Barzakh By Mantas Kvedaravicius

Lithuania, Finland (2011) - Tridens Baltic Competition

How do you portray pain that doesn’t reveal itself in tears or any other universally understood symbols, yet it’s so overwhelming that it makes the world stand still? A pain so interwoven into the fabric of everyday life that it has become inseparable from it? Mantas Kvedaravičius, a young Lithuanian cultural anthropologist, was trying to answer this question when he decided to create a documentary while making research on torture and disappearances in Chechnya.

The answer wasn’t easy to find. At first glance, the wounds left by two wars in recent history are beginning to heal, buildings and streets are being repaired and life returns to what it once was – a normal everyday routine. But under the surface, well disguised, there lies another kind of horror. Every day, every hour, people are discovering members of their families missing. It can happen to anyone and everyone, for no apparent reason, without any warning. After spending some time with the locals and listening to their stories, the researcher is shocked to find out the chilling truth – it is a society living in constant, silent fear. Nobody is safe and there’s nobody to turn to – the government gives death threats instead of answers, and the only thing left to do is wait.

The Chechnyan people find their answers in prayer. For the filmmaker, the answer lies in capturing the surface of everyday life and it’s simple rituals. A young boy washes his feet. Small stones dance in the hand of a fortune teller. An evening prayer from the minaret flows above the quiet city. A one-eared man tries to shave. “They could have at least cut it off nicer. You see the scar? It’s difficult to shave this place now.” – he complains. The surface of normal life begins to crack and peel off, revealing the raw reality underneath: torture, suffering, a feeling of injustice.

Where did all the missing people go? Are they still alive or is it time to consider them dead? The Quran mentions a mythical place called Barzakh, a gap between two worlds. There is neither life nor death there. And it seems like both the missing ones and their families have entered this place, forced to live in a world where time stands still, unable to contact each other or know whether the other ones are still among the living.

Being able to combine his academic interest in the problem and the poetic approach is the biggest achievement for the director, a debutant in the film world. He has expressed a wish to continue making films – and that is good news for all those interested in documentary film and fundamental human issues.

By Albina Griniūtė