SHORT GRAND PRIX COMPETITION

WORLD PREMIERE

OPENING NIGHT SCREENING

IN MEMORIAM ALEXANDER LITVINENKO

The Netherlands, 2007, 55 min., Russian, English

Director: Jos de Putter, Masha Novikova
Producer: Miriam Bos
Cinematography: Erik van Empel, Adri Schrover, Maarten Kramer
Editing: Patrick Minks
Music: Paul Delput
Sound: Bouwe Mulder, Mark Witte
Production company: Backlight for VPRO Television
Print Source:
VPRO TV / Backlight
PO Box 11
1200 JC Hilversum
Tel.: +31 35 6712188
Fax: +31 35 6712267
e-mail: backlight@vpro.nl


IN MEMORIAM ALEKSANDER LITVINENKO

This documentary is a provocative account of the final days of ex-Federal Security Service officer, Russian dissident and writer Aleksandr Litvinenko as well as an engrossing look into the tense political situation in Russia. In November 2006 the world was shocked by photographs of a weakened and bald Litvinenko fighting for his life in a UK hospital. Despite a rigorous investigation, it wasn’t until after his death on the 24th of November 2006, that results revealed that Litvinenko, a former secret service operative granted political asylum in the UK, was the rare victim of polonium-210 poisoning. In this shocking film started two years before Litvinenko’s death, directors Jos de Putter and Masha Novikova boldly chronicle the dissident turned activist’s story from his time as a lieutenant-colonel in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, to his arrest for publicly speaking out against his superiors and ultimately to his decision to flee his native Russia. Composed of candid and riveting interviews with Litvinenko - some of which feature the stoic thinker prophesizing his own death – Litvinenko’s father and Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen President in exile, this ripped from the headlines, eye-opening documentary is both a political tour de force and an example of masterful filmmaking.

Jos de Putter was born in Terneuzen, the Netherlands in 1959. He studied political science and literature, and worked several years as a film critic, before he made his first documentary in 1993. He also worked for the TV program “Diogenes.” In 2003, de Putter was honored with a retrospective of his films at the CIDF, followed by the similar program made by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Pacific Film Archives, Berkley (2002) and the Brooklyn School of Music in 2005.

Filmography:

In Memoriam Alexander Litvinenko (2006);
After the Flood (2006);
How Many Roads (2004);
Alias Kurban Said (2004);
Brooklyn Stories (2003);
The Damned and the Sacred (2002), CIDF Grand Prix 2003;
Zikr (1999);
The Making of a New Empire (1999);
Nagasaki Stories (1996);
Solo, the Favela’s Law (1994);
It Has Been a Lovely Day (1993).

Masha Novikova
See THREE COMRADES

OPENING NIGHT SCREENING!
FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2007 8:00 pm./PRITZKER AUDITORIUM

SUNDAY, APIRL 1 AT 4:00 PM./WILMETTE THEATRE

FRIDAY, APRIL 6 AT 7:00 PM./DOC FILMS

SCREENING WITH THE TEA BOY OF GAZA