Open the gate!
THEY WERE...
YOUNG
HANDSOME
This world that I am creating...
shall belong to your kind, Danvitz.
BLOND
We will shoot every other person.
One...
DECADENTS
Who are you, Ivan?
MURDERERS
Hurry up!
Stop! Old man play bad.
We shoot old man!
CRIMINALS
BALTIC ACTORS
Riga International Airport
Nazis and Blondes
The Republic of Latvia.
Courland.
The ground is full of metal here.
The final battles of World War II held on European soil took place here.
One fine summer day, here in Courland's Edwahlen castle...
there was a gathering of some well-known faces from the Baltic states.
"The First Reunion of the Veterans of the Ideological Front"
They are notorious Baltic film actors.
In Soviet films, they portrayed most of the enemy officers...
Aryan beauties...
Nazi executioners...
blond sex bombs...
and sadists.
You are the participants and veterans...
of the ideological war.
Baltic actors had...
the HONOR...
of depicting...
EVIL on the screen!
Welcome to this castle!
Welcome to the veterans' reunion!
Ladies and gentlemen.
We are giving out prizes.
The name of our prize is...
the Ring of the Nibelung.
During the Soviet regime, we heard thousands of times the motto:
No one will be forgotten! Nothing will be forgotten!
There is no one else than the people here today...
who could have depicted the roles of the German occupiers better.
But no prizes or awards were given out for that.
It is time...
to put that wrong to right.
Cheer up!
Let's begin the gala evening.
The name of the first category is Albericht.
Hitler is by far the uncrowned height of Nazi roles.
It's the Nazi Hamlet!
To our knowledge, no Baltic actor has been given...
the privilege of playing HIM.
And yet, the callous steel shell of the fascist...
sometimes concealed a person...
who was wrought with doubts.
On the screen before you we present:
The candidates for the Ring of the Nibelung award...
for the role of...
the Doubting Nazi.
"The Ring of the Nibelung" Nominees for the DOUBTING NAZI
I spent 5 years building my fort, fearing to think about the future.
I lived from inertia...
but now many Germans have started to understand...
what a catastrophe Nazism was for Germany.
Germany will survive, try to understand that.
Only madmen would think about destroying your homeland.
Follow your consciences.
The first nominee...
ULDIS LIELDIDZ Latvian SSR (=Soviet Socialist Republic) Role of "Bamler" In film "Far in the West", 1969
I was filming at Mosfilm studio one day, and went across the street after a take...
to the glass pavilion with the sign "Pelmennaja" ("Dumpling house").
I went in and ordered 1.5 servings of dumplings.
Sour cream.
But I started to feel like something wasn't right.
A young man sat nearby.
He was about 9 or 10 and with his mother.
The young man kept peering at me, constantly, like this.
I was already afraid that something was coming.
I was right. The boy stood up, very politely, came over to me and asked:
"Mister, are you a fascist?"
"Listen, young man, I'm an actor."
He said: "I know, that you are a fascist. " And he became very serious.
I told him that I was an actor, that I came from Latvia to film at Mosfilm.
But he said: "I know you, you're a fascist."
And he left, but I wasn't hungry any more after that.
He walked away and sat down next to his mom.
He finished eating, stood up.
Walked all the way through the room.
Turned around at the door and yelled across the whole room:
"People!"
"There is a fascist over there, stuffing himself with our dumplings!"
When they wanted to show a villain in some stupid Soviet film...
and to make it immediately obvious that he was an enemy and a villain...
they had him chew with his mouth open.
Always chicken, eating with his hands...
Chicken is awkward to eat.
And who eats like that - of course, it's the enemy.
Because he wouldn't eat meat and potatoes. Only normal people eat that.
Of course normal people also eat chicken...
but eating chicken isn't appealing. So the guy eating chicken is a villain.
He's eating chicken on screen, which means he's a villain.
No doubt whatsoever!
A Tatar enemy is even worse.
Closer.
Stronger.
You can't buy your freedom from him.
A GERMAN!
In 1938, a 40 year old Russian film director, Sergey Eisenstein...
directs the film "Alexander Nevsky".
With a historical struggle as his backdrop, he prophetically depicts...
the suffering of the upcoming war, which awaits the Soviet people during...
the thieving conquest of the Germans.
At that time, Eisenstein was a person in the Bolshevik-Communist world...
who didn't agree with the status quo.
Eisenstein.
He was clever, and he realized that he was a talented director...
and he wanted to be best in this world.
That was his eternal mistake.
When he makes "Alexander Nevsky" he is on the verge of hysteria.
He had practically been blacklisted...
after his last film was banned.
There's nothing he can do.
So he makes a deliberately fictitious film...
with deliberately false historical facts.
He does it convincingly.
Makes it into a sort of musical.
A kind of opera.
The film evokes a huge response, it is successful...
but the most important thing is, that Stalin says:
"Look - at last we have a completely flawless film."
The director was all the more surprised...
when the freshly completed, operatic film was unexpectedly shelved.
The Soviet Union and Germany became allies.
As a twist of fate, Sergey Eisenstein had to direct a new opera at Moscow's Bolshoi theater...
"The Valkyrie" from Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung" series...
staged in honor of the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Those were dynamic times...
and a lot was accomplished together before the quarreling began.
In 1939, a joint victory parade was organized in Brest-Litovsk...
to celebrate the defeat of the Polish forces.
Together, two large powers shared Poland amongst each other...
followed by the Baltic countries and part of Romania.
The conquest seized land, raw materials, resources.
Some of these resources were completely unusual.
Conquering the Baltics also gave the Soviet film industry...
control of talented Baltic actors. The future personifiers of evil.
And these are the main characters of this film.
And yet, the wind turned again.
The Second World War began, recent friends became enemies...
and the canons of depicting the enemy created by Eisenstein...
once again went into use.
In "Rainbow," the lead was actually played by a German actor...
a rare case in Soviet cinema. Hans Klering, a German communist...
who emigrated here from Germany.
He really liked the Soviet order, the Soviet authority.
He lived quite well because he always played the roles of Germans in films.
He was already playing Germans in the 1930s...
but when the war started, he undoubtedly had a lot more work.
Soon we see how strong you are! You stinking bolschevik mother!
I'm a mother!
Then tell me where are they?
I won't say anything.
"Rainbow" wasn't his only film, but it is one rare situation...
where the German villains were played by actual Germans.
There were others, such as Heinz Braun, a second-rate actor.
He also played a lot of Germans.
In Moscow, he worked as a newscaster on German Radio.
He and I worked together on two films.
I asked him once: "What do you think of all this, Heinzik?"
"You were a soldier, now you play a fascist?"
"And such a fierce one at that?"
He said: "You know, everything they film here is nonsense."
"I've lived through it all and I know."
"What they're filming here is all fairy-tales."
"You can't take it seriously."
"I'm satisfied that I can authenticate the way we look, set the cross correctly."
"Make sure we act the right way, wear our hats the right way."
"And all the rest is made up, it's nonsense. Nothing like that ever happened..."
"and I can hardly bear it."
"But I get paid very well."
"The Ring of the Nibelung" Nominees for the BEST NAZI STARE
One look can make you smile, another kind can make you blush.
There is also another special facial expression, which we're awarding today.
There is a reason to fight against the Communism virus.
(German soldier) ... (interpreter) You shouldn't even exist.
(German soldier) ... (interpreter) This mission will be completed.
(German soldier) ... (interpreter) Today or tomorrow.
JÜRI LUMISTE, Estonian SSR Role of "German" In film "Come and See", 1985
Wouldn't you like to unite the people you trust...
into a certain organization...
which could, in a sense, take care of the future of Russia.
Interesting...
But in the interest of avoiding misjudgment from the start...
there is no need to worry about Russia.
Russia shall not exist.
ALGIMANTAS MASIULIS, Lithuanian SSR Role of "Zolding" In film "Destiny", 1977
I want you to understand how easily we are entering the post-war world.
We shall have a government made of important people...
and there, in freedom, we shall form the Fourth Reich!
We shall preserve national socialism.
It's all up to you.
ULDIS DUMPIS, Latvian SSR Role of "Gerhard von Zwischen" In film "Secret Fairway", 1987
And the Siegfried prize goes to...
Jüri Lumiste, Estonian SSR!
In Soviet films, a Baltic actor could only depict a negative character...
because he wasn't associated with Soviet people in any way.
And that's why in the '50s, the actor who got the most screen time...
and also the first actor who acted in those roles was...
Estonian actor Ants Eskola.
And his brother, Olev Eskola, followed him.
They had the right faces to play negative characters.
Why did it have to be them in the role?
Well, because it wasn't enough that he was a negative character...
he was also a foreigner!
So he was doubly foreign.
Of course, all of this was done subconsciously.
But doubly foreign means that he was doubly negative.
Because the Soviet man met God for the first time during the war...
by chance and subconsciously...
then the holy place left empty within him was filled by war.
For the Soviet person, God was replaced by war.
They had to speak of war using words like this:
"Please accept us, War, take us in, dear mother."
"We love you, we remember you."
"We know that you are our God."
"Become our new God, and we will show that..."
"you are real, War!"
"You have none of the falseness and lies that Stalin's time sadly brought us."
"There is nothing like that in you."
"That's why all of the people were glorious."
"You are our God, War. Enter our homes." All this was in the films.
Most of the screen Nazis of that time were played by Estonians.
But there was one notable Latvian actor - the hook-nosed Valentins Skulme...
who acted in one very notable film.
Sports are an honest struggle, Herr Major... Sports are not politics!
Today's match is very important...
and the winner must be the "Condor" Legion.
Because if they lose, your whole team will be shot.
"The Third Half", 1962. This is a well-known film...
about a German soccer team who had a match against Soviet players.
Some were from concentration camps, some from jail, some just lived in Kiev.
They were put into a team and told...
that if you beat our team, we will shoot you.
They did win and the Germans shot them all.
The scriptwriter and author who dug up that story, Borshchagovsky...
told me on live television about how that story made it to the screen.
He said that first, he met almost all of the guys who played in the match.
Many of them lived in Kiev then, he visited someone in Sverdlovsk.
"What do you mean visited, if they were all killed?!"
"No, no, one guy was randomly killed later, during a penalty operation."
"The Germans said they would kill every third man, and that's the one who died."
"Oh really?! And here I thought that the Germans killed them all!"
The man wrote a famous, documentary story...
with a decent film adaptation and he talked to the people it was about...
who, according to his story, could consider themselves dead...
even though they were alive and talked about their experiences.
Totally fantastic! It was surrealism!
But the author, himself, didn't think he did anything wrong.
And the myth that they were all killed still lives on.
Baltic actors played few roles in the '60s...
but they started to play more and more in the '70s.
The general attitude completely changes...
and there is a rift in Soviet society...
as everyone starts to look to the West.
There is something soulful about Baltic actors.
It might even seem slightly Western on the screen...
and thus it gives the film a certain prestige, accuracy. And depth.
And that's how I started to play Germans...
starting with simple soldiers, then officers, generals, and so on.
There was an interesting relationship...
between the Russian audience...
and us, the actors playing the roles.
I remember, that after the second film in Sevastopol...
I was given a police bodyguard...
because people threw rocks at me.
I didn't wear the uniform on the street, but during the crowd scenes...
they saw that men in German uniforms were being filmed in the quarry.
I was attacked and called names on the street, so I got a bodyguard.
Unpleasant.
I was called a fascist on the street 10-20 times:
"Look, a fascist is coming, we know that fascist."
Some more, some less...
but almost all of the Baltic actors underwent...
a kind of "christening of alienation".
Why did you stop now?
See, everything is calm and clear.
In 1971, we made a film in Berlin, "The Last Voyage of the Albatross".
By chance, one of us knew the doctor...
for the German soccer team.
And that doctor invited us to the theater.
In the basement, where we had a beer afterwards...
there were some German actors. And then they asked...
what we were doing in Berlin.
And we said that...
It was somehow embarrassing to say that we were doing a war film.
And they were very interested...
and asked: "So who do you play?"
"Well, we play German officers."
And an awful, insulting laughter broke out.
"They are playing us!"
"They are playing German officers! Ha ha haa!"
"The Ring of the Nibelung" Nominees for the BEST HUMOR
Germans and humor are two things that, for some reason, don't go together.
All you would need is the right expression, a dead-on remark...
and everyone would be laughing.
But a German, especially one in uniform, isn't capable of that.
(German officer) ... (interpreter) Gentlemen. Last stop.
Come along now.
JUOZAS BUDRAITIS, Lithuanian SSR Role of "Danvitz" In film "Blocade", 1973
Excellent!
A bulls-eye.
ERVIN ABEL, Estonian SSR Role of "German" In film "Skylark", 1965
Are you a Jew?
Yes, a Jew.
Play for me, please. Play!
Look, personally, I'm getting tired of this.
Sit down.
I am Richard Bradbury, have you heard of such a man? - Yes, I have.
If this is a political move, stop acting like a bandit.
ALGIMANTAS MASIULIS, Lithuanian SSR In film "The Velvet Season", 1978
And the Votan prize goes to...
ladies and gentlemen: Juozas Budraitis, Lithuanian SSR.
In our village, in the barn, there were Germans having lunch...
and they invited me to try their food.
I still remember gobbling from the aluminum pot with them.
To this day, I still remember the taste of their soup...
but I can't recreate it, can't find that same taste anywhere else.
They invited girls over and danced...
but only threw candy at us, the small boys.
I remember that it was there I learned my first German words.
Good morning.
Good morning, sweetie. - Mom said that breakfast is ready.
Thank you, my dear.
They seemed really nice and benevolent.
Maybe I compared them to the Russian soldiers...
who stole from us and killed people all year.
They stole everything...
but the Germans gave us treats.
I was astounded by that.
Estonian women remember German officers as very gallant men.
They were very dignified.
They were never hunched over with their hat askew.
They were officers all the time.
And they acted like officers.
A real soldier and a real man never wastes time.
One time I was invited to Germany to play a fascist.
Because even the Germans, themselves, refused to play that role.
Afterward everyone thanked me...
because I said no and drove back to Latvia that evening.
And in Russia I never shot at anyone!
Not in a single film. I did have a holster on my belt.
Sometimes I kept cigarettes and matches in it.
But I said no to films where you had to play angry fascists.
And I never shot anyone.
It was against my nature.
I couldn't aim at a person. I refused.
It's very difficult to explain it to myself and even to talk about it.
I purposefully wanted to be different than how they had always been portrayed.
To justify them.
If you confess who you were hiding the radio transmitter for...
and who your accomplices were, then your punishment is changed.
But what can we do if you really want to die so badly...
To die...
When a Balt appeared as a German...
the liberal public sighed with relief.
Everyone hoped that, if anyone can carry this role, then it's him.
He's going to play something complex for us.
Unfortunately that practically never actually happened.
Maybe because they had to play in very bad films and very rarely in good ones.
And the war theme became an entertainment genre for the public.
Complete entertainment.
"What's the film about", they asked each other? "Oh, war? Let's go have fun then."
But they were dealing with war, it's a tragedy, a horror!
We said a lot of propagandistic lines.
I could memorize 2-3 pages in a few minutes. Word for word.
And I could do this also.
But it would vanish from my identity in seconds, I didn't remember it.
In my childhood, during the 1980s...
they showed Soviet war films on TV every week, if not every day.
I really liked them. I could watch them all day.
I don't know if that was the reason, but at six I was sure...
that I wanted to direct films. And to start making war films.
At fifteen my dream became true.
I made my first film with an 8mm camera.
It was a parody of a Soviet war film.
By then, no one took those films seriously any more.
I found the actors right here in the neighborhood.
The boys were happy to run around in uniforms.
Their interest waned when things became more and more serious.
They snuck away from the set during the retakes.
Another problem was no one wanted to play the Russians.
I had to force them to do it. They all wanted to be Germans.
Maybe it was because the German uniforms were nicer.
The public and the critics often asked:
"Algis, why are you so good at the German roles in particular?"
To be honest, it wasn't always pleasant to hear that.
You want to die a heroine? No, you die in the soldiers' brothel.
Alright, I'll be more humane.
You will be shot, but your kin will not find out about it.
Let Brjuhhanov suffer!
Brave!
Very brave.
There was nothing about the Germans, like with any enemy, nothing that...
would make us to comply with them.
If something like that had emerged...
our whole world view would have changed.
But a Soviet person was not capable of that.
Making the enemy figures seem sensible was a piece of cake.
The scriptwriters and directors learned how to do that.
The enemy could even be smart, attractive, but he was never justified.
That is exactly what separates realism from socialist realism.
The main characteristic remained - the enemy did not have his own truth...
and thus he remained the enemy.
At the cinema theater "October", which is on Arbat street in the middle of Moscow...
they held an fan event "Meet with the Popular Actor Algimantas Masiulis"...
they had the poster up and everything.
I heard some noise and asked what it was.
"The public, 2000 people!"
My God, they're not only sitting but standing already as well.
Director Matvejev went on stage alone and said: "It's very nice..."
"that so many of you have gathered to honor..."
"a Lithuanian actor we all know so well"
"The 'Head Fascist of the Soviet Union' - Algimantas Masiulis!"
It was met with laughter and wild applause.
That's how it generally went, though he wasn't exactly right...
because from the cast list you see that the USSR head fascist was Lieldidz.
That's for sure.
But Masiulis was more memorable...
and people knew him by name. That's why Matvejev was partially right.
In that muddy swamp it was hard...
to remember specific actors...
not even specific finds or good performances...
but even weird personifications of Germans.
It had be there, it's not possible that those things didn't exist.
For example, I remember one horrible Russian film...
where Estonian Sulev Luik plays a German, the main enemy.
Damn that country!
His face made him stand out from the other, numberless screen-Germans.
Because he had a face like an alien from another planet...
and he had this terminally ill look.
So he wasn't so much the figure of the enemy...
as some terminally ill alien who had flown in from who-knows-where...
ended up there during a war and being forced to depict a German...
so that no one would know that he was from another planet.
Of course, this was purely accidental.
Estonian Jüri Järvet is different from Lieldidz. He was always an untraditional actor.
A complex SS-figure emerged on the screen...
because he was such a grotesque, original, intricate actor.
His expressions were astonishing.
But I guess those films didn't need such a complex SS character.
That's why those kinds of roles went mostly to...
Uldis Dumpis and Uldis Lieldidz.
Even if Dumpis is a good actor, and he had some great moments...
though he also accepted all kinds of crap, but he's simply a better actor...
then Lieldidz got so stuck in his...
eternal SS costume and make-up...
that nothing interesting came from him. It just couldn't.
Back when I was playing German officers in those films...
then 90% of the directors had no other request except for:
"Uldis, look more cruel!"
"Be more serious."
"Uldis, not like that! You have too gentle eyes. Stop it!"
That was what I constantly heard...
as long as I played Germans.
It was insulting.
And if I had my own input...
"No, that's not necessary!"
"Look crueler, hang in there and that's good enough."
If you asked those directors what they wanted to say with their films...
then they usually started their speech with the following words:
"Our nation blah blah blah... The large catastrophe..."
"We are in debt to our forefathers, who fought for us..."
"and that's why I decided to film all of the spies" etc.
And when they kept repeating themselves, you could immediately see...
that their heads were empty while they were making the film.
They just repeated the customary ideological and mythological phrases.
No doubt they were fed by the sensibility of 'war as religion':
"It is my holy duty as an artist to express my opinion about this subject!"
Now I've played lots of fascists, or Germans, whatever you call it...
You could ask what impression they've left on me.
After all, it was a big job.
With each film you had to say something with your words or acting.
That's all I can say.
I couldn't say how many roles I've played.
I don't have the scripts. I threw them away!
I have forgotten them.
If I think about what is left from it all...
then the answer is - nothing.
A few photos. Just a couple.
It was time for me to leave the theater and I stopped performing in films.
I didn't need all that!
I ripped everything up. Didn't keep any sort of record.
Why do I need those photos? Old memories.
I started living a new life, without theater, without film.
What do I need those photos for any more?
Uldis works in downtown Riga as a night guard.
We are giving out our last, special prize...
The Ring of the Rings...
The Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award for the most numerous and distinguished Nazi roles will go to...
Please come to the stage, maestro...
MISTER...
MASIULIS! Der Ring des Nibelungen!
Thank you for everything, had I known then...
that for playing so many of them...
I would have to accept these heavy stones...
and drag them home to Kaunas...
I would not have accepted so many roles. Thanks.
We were thinking that it's got to be...
either a documentary or a feature film.
We're Germans, and of course we were shocked to see a swastika.
It's forbidden for us.
And we thought, this HAS to be something historical...
and hopefully not something contemporary.
Fascism won't prevail!
Sadly, many Russian-speaking inhabitants of the Baltics do think that this IS contemporary.
Their opinions are shared by the Russian media, which keenly follows...
the state of affairs in their neighboring countries.
The following is the Russian national television's overview of the situation.
Our correspondent, Jekaterina Zorina is on the line.
Jekaterina, what is happening in the capital of Latvia right now?
Today, they are trying to have a reunion of former SS legionaries.
In Moscow, Russian university students gathered in front of the Latvian embassy.
They carried posters with anti-fascists slogans...
and re-evoked the Nuremberg War Trials.
The students used a sickle to smash...
cans of Riga sprats, laid in the shape of a swastika...
thus expressing their protest against the nationalistic mindset in Latvia...
and their solidarity with antifascists.
Tallinn The Republic of Estonia
For a Russian, the word "fascist" is synonymous with "enemy".
In this case, it is being used against the Estonian government...
whose Prime Minister, Andrus Ansip, is depicted in an SS uniform.
Fascists!
Things are getting rough.
It seems that we have a few unanswered questions left.
It is time to change the context and tone.
Is it all merely play-acting?
Sit down.
The former head of the concentration camps, told the SSR War Tribunal:
"I don't consider myself guilty."
"I followed the orders I received from Berlin."
"If I had refused, I would have been shot."
The representative of the Soviet High Command...
submitted materials that unquestionably confirm the defendant's guilt.
Do you personally feel responsible for anything?
I don't feel guilty. I'm not going to admit guilt.
Ideologically, I don't see anything wrong with it.
No. I had it all under control.
And I thought I portrayed Nazi philosophy correctly.
Their particular world view, their attitude towards people. Their racism.
Convictions!
Sieg Heil!
If the people east of us now feel the need to call us bad names...
us, my people, the Balts...
then it's their own fault.
It's because they are immature. And they are...
How would you say it - undereducated.
They simply couldn't understand it.
And the actors only portrayed the enemy and did it fairly intelligently.
Was playing fascist a certain kind of protest against...
the Soviet regime and communism?
It's very difficult to answer that.
Finding something like that in those roles is overstating it.
Though I personally found German pilots to be nicer than Russian ones.
Do you think this is funny?
Don't you think that, in playing Germans...
you encouraged the stereotype of the "fascist Balts"?
It would be very awful, if that were true.
But even now it's hard to find a reason...
for why Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians were chosen to play German officers.
It's very hard for me to answer that.
I don't know why it was like that.
Perhaps the directors thought that we were...
not our faces, but rather our demeanor and the way we think...
closer to the Germans.
And on the other hand, I don't know...
why young Russian soldiers...
called Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians fascists.
Hundreds of actors played on...
as they were called "fascists".
Hundreds of actors have played executioners.
Hundreds of actors have played traitors.
Are you going to start incriminating all of them as well?
"Fascist." They called them fascists? Where does that word come from?
From Mussolini.
But now all of Russia is yelling "fascism" and "fascists".
They have a completely different understanding of the word.
I guess it's profitable and necessary for someone...
to have two nationalities in opposition.
I've been hung, shot, drowned.
I feel bad inside...
and even though I know I'm here, I still feel as if...
I've been to the other side.
I've had to take it all in emotionally.
(German soldier) ... (interpreter) I'm asking you for the last time.
(German soldier) ... (interpreter) Who blew up the bridge?
(German soldier) ... (interpreter) Load the machine-guns!
She loves me, she loves me not.
...loves me not, she loves me...
(German soldier) ... (interpreter) The ones on the right go home!
But the others, we will shoot!
I blew up the bridge!
The officer says that no one could do that alone.
You see everything in war.
Shoot him!
Where are you from? What's your name, son? - Kingfisher.
I'm seeing these scenes for the first time right now.
They are brutal.
They had another option, with dogs and shouting...
And pistols.
I refused to shout and I refused to shoot.
Did you have a weapon?
Have you used it?
I had a gun, but I've never shot it. I said no to films like that.
Really?
We have proof of otherwise.
See for yourself.
Gentlemen, this land and water belongs to you. Music!
Let's forget about these hard times of war.
Shooting at people and shooting in the air are two different things.
Volodja, run!
Now what did we just see?
I don't remember this film, these actors, or this situation.
I don't remember it.
It seems like it is YOU shooting.
That's possible, but I doubt it.
That was your hand holding the gun?
Uldis!
But what's the difference?
Whether you shoot, or give the order...
or preach ideology?
Yes, but you cannot take another human's life...
everyone knows that.
But ideologists destroy many things and often...
and, so far in history, all oppressors have done that.
There were times when you had to do that.
You had to hang, shoot, destroy people...
when you made war films.
Millions of people obeyed.
Why are you judging me?
You don't want to talk like civilized people?
You have to lie and twist the truth. - I'm telling the truth.
I didn't see anyone else at all.
You handle them!
Pick them up!
You are showing me vulgar, horrific things.
Do you want me to take responsibility for them, or what?
It won't work!
Anapa The Black Sea, Russia
On the hill to the left, there is a monument, a cross.
It is a memorial cross...
erected to honor our people's victory in the Big War for the Fatherland.
It is nearly 20 m high with a diameter of 8 m. It weighs 44 tons.
This cross has been consecrated by the Kuban metropolitan bishop Isidore.
It's not by chance that it stands here, in the foothills of the Caucasus.
It stands here to remind all of the people of Caucasus...
that human life remains the most important thing to this day.
And everyone, no matter their nationality or religious belief...
simply must live in peace.
Are you together? - No.
Give me the ticket.
Stand here. Look there.
I'm staring right at him.
Hold your hand like this.
And now we see a dolphin painting for us...
and why don't you honor the artist with friendly applause.
Let's clap as a miracle of the seas occurs before our eyes.
It is difficult to say what Max is depicting in his piece.
Perhaps it is his watery home...
or perhaps this is his perspective of us sitting in the bleachers.
Applause, please! Just look at them twirl!
Any synchronized swimming team would be jealous!
Max and Nicol.
Inga and Alissa.
Anapa Film Festival The Black Sea, Russia
Now, a warm welcome for the cinema folks from Latvia!
The actors Uldis Lieldidz, Ivars Kalninsh.
The Anapa Film Festival is unique. It has been created to join the former...
Soviet Socialist Republics.
Uzbeks, Georgians, and Russians party together here.
We invited Uldis to watch the contemporary films of his former homeland...
and to participate in a friendly party affair.
Let's go. Finita la Comedia! (The comedy is over!)
But they're filming... - Maybe over here, stand here.
Excuse me, for goodness sakes. - What can you do...
Everything is just like it was 30, 40, 50 years ago.
The big directors, the big actors, all of them.
Even the young guys who are still fidgeting with the camera.
After looking around...
there is nothing there, and never has been.
Everyone's just parading around: "Look at what I've accomplished!"
It's sad to see it.
I hoped that it would be more beautiful, better, more interesting than before.
These films are pointless if you really look at them.
It wasn't so easy to stuff yourself into a German uniform 38 times.
But is it any better now? I don't see anything different!
All right, that's enough! It's late. No heavy thinking in the evening.
I need to rest.
But I don't know how to rest. I don't know how to do anything.
I would go out for a walk right now, but where would I go?
It's dirty everywhere, what is there to see here...
this market, these huts?
Piles of garbage wherever you look.
Where can you escape to?
I stayed in Sevastopol for the night.
I wanted to see the morning sunrise and I was so lucky!
Just before the sun rose from the water - a sudden dance on the sea!
There were some 10-15 dolphins.
An unbelievable dance. They didn't jump alone...
but two or four of them at a time.
I saw a magnificent performance.
So high! And so graceful!
Smart animals. And beautiful!
We will never reach their level. Not a chance.
We won't meet again, not ever. They won't be here today.
He goes where he wants.
He is his own boss...
Dedicated to Leni