Tue Steen Mueller

A New Generation’s Fight for Human Rights

Under the auspices of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the 2022 Sarajevo Film Festival organises its annual 14th Human Rights Day programme, which includes a screening of Anna Shishova’s THE NEW GREATNESS CASE. Speaking out against human rights violations remains the guiding principle of this festival programme. Currently, we are seeing the devastating consequences of the Russian regime’s human rights abuses in the case of the war in Ukraine. With this in mind, we have decided to show this film to general audiences and to include young activists from the region in the discussion.

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Human Rights Day programme includes a workshop for young activists aged between 18 and 25 from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans. The workshop is organised in partnership with KULT and Young European Ambassadors. As in previous years, the programme also features a panel discussion and opening remarks. The panel’s moderator is film critic True Steen Mueller.

INTRODUCTION BY TUE STEEN MUELLER:

“One of my Russian friends wrote this to me not long ago: ‘A few days ago … two women and their five children aged 7 to 11 were detained at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow. The children made a ‘No War’ poster and went with it. All seven were detained by the police. At first, they were kept in a paddy wagon; then they were taken to the Presnenskoye police department. Initially, all those who had been arrested were going to be left at the station, but the any children and their mothers were released. Now parents are waiting for court appearances, fines, and they are afraid they will be deprived of parental rights. They are looking for a human rights lawyer….’

“Surprised? No, I guess not, if you follow the reports coming out of Russia. I used to go to Russia for film events and I know a lot of filmmakers, friends with whom I have talked about how life passes while you are not busy doing something other than making films. Always being careful not to get into trouble when demonstrations take place. As Anna Shishova, the director of THE NEW GREATNESS CASE, which has been chosen for this Human Rights Day event said in an interview: ‘For 10 or 20 years, the legal system in Russia has drifted in a totalitarian direction. We have many new laws. One of those laws says that if you say something bad against authority, you can be put in jail. Another law punishes extremist organisations, which means you are guilty if you say something against authority within a group.’ “Words I have heard again and again when visiting St. Petersburg or Moscow. Often said with a twist of irony, making fun of the regime and its leaders.

“Since 24 February 2022, I have not travelled to Russia – and many filmmakers have left the country. The brutality has increased, demonstrators are knocked down and imprisoned. And the brutality in the war against Ukraine is indescribable. There is no more irony – there is a need for constant good journalism and documentaries like THE NEW GREATNESS CASE.

“The film: Anya Pavlikova. Seventeen years old. She is in a courtroom, inside the terrible glass enclosure we know so well from films about the Russian justice system. Her parents sit in front of the glass. The camera catches Anya’s nervous face: she seems to be on the edge of a breakdown. Fear! A judge enters the room and reads out the verdict: Anya is sentenced to three years in prison for her participation in a group of youngsters called the New Greatness… The beginning of a superb film.

“Shisova’s film is what a documentary should be: it documents; it interprets; it asks for reflection; it has a strong emotional impact on the audience. It tells the story of young people who were chatting on the internet discussing all kinds of matters, including the social and the political. And it stays with the parents and sketches a gripping portrait of the mother. “What is new here, at least for me, is the skill with which the regime works with informers, who – as the film shows so well – infiltrated the youngsters, invited them to have their own “office” and pushed them to go to demonstrations with leaflet, until eventually they were arrested for speaking out against the government, etc. Anya was one of those captured by the surveillance cameras set up by the secret service. In a room that comes back again and again with the main informer in the picture. Absurd!

“Unlike many other films about opposition that have come from Russia, like those on Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, and Anna Politkovskaya, THE NEW GREATNESS CASE follows Anya’s family, especially her mother, who turns fear into a hunger strike and herself into one of the many political activists we hear too little about.

“The film has been characterised as ‘a chilling portrait of the intensified crackdown on dissent and free expression in Putin’s Russia’ (Sheffield DocFest). True!

“Just imagine: Of the 30 articles in the UN declaration of Human Rights, how many would be relevant for a discussion after the film screening. Quite a lot I would say!”