What struck me at the Sheffield DocFest was the demographic of the average audience. Aside from the industry faces, it consisted mainly of quite young and relatively old people. It seemed people of the producing ages – say, 30-50 years old – were not there. I suppose they were busy…producing. Sheffield must, as a consequence, be filled to the brim with radicalised pensioners. There were many of them at the screening of Eric Bergkraut’s new documentary.
Letter to Anna
Just over two years after Anna Politkovskaya was killed in the doorway of her own home, members of the small audience in the small theatre were struggling to understand the French and the Russian that opens the documentary about her. The screening of Letter to Anna in Sheffield had to restart as the wrong DVD (no subtitles) was playing. This, at least, broke the serious atmosphere and inserted a little laughter into an otherwise humourless issue. You’ll find Val Kermode’s review here.
Quality of a State
Since this screening, only three months ago, a further two related murders have occurred in Russia:
- Anna Politkovskaya (30 Aug 1958 – 7 Oct 2006)
- Stanislav Markelov (20 May 1974 – 19 Jan 2009)
- Anastasia Baburova (30 Nov 1983 – 19 Jan 2009)
It is tempting to make the outspoken newspaper Novaya Gazeta the connection between these murders. Or, to see it as a consequence of the Second Chechen War. I choose, however, to put them in an ordered list to highlight the inability of the Russian state to keep her defenders alive.
[For the full tragedy of this inability, see this list.]
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