"Do we have a mother?"

Dutch director Masha Novikova about the "load-off warfare". Fragment of the film

On Monday, the Hague in the Hague as part of the documentary movie Film Movies that Matter is the premiere of the new film by the Dutch director Masha Novikova "Cargo 200 of the Endless War" (Cargo 200 of UndecLared War). This picture is dedicated to Russian soldiers who carry war on Ukrainian land, and their mothers.

In an interview with Radio, Freedom Masha Novikova admits that he experiences bitter feelings when he hears the words of the volunteer from Kharkov "We united this war":

-I see how people sew camouflage nets there or collecting some things for war, children draw drawings. My mother told how during the Patriotic War the children at the school sewed some kisets. The same thing happens there. They united this war, they had some kind of national feeling-these flags constantly, this slogan "Glory to the heroes!". And against the backdrop of this in Russia-a sense of loss, some kind of spirituality, lies, falsehood. In Ukraine, it is very beautiful, their patriotism. Patriotism usually does not excite me, let’s say, I am a cosmopolitan. But this Ukrainian patriotism caused me good feelings of sincerity. I am very sorry that today in Russia everyone, it seems to me, hate each other, has become evil. Because all these "scrapers", some new word idiotic invented, they are so false, these scrapers. And I sometimes ask: imagine that there are no fascists - what are you opposing then, perish for what? When I see these photos that I have in the film, these boys, with a child in her arms, it's just scary! It’s just some blasphemy that young guys go, leave their own children, die! For what? Because those Ukrainians who die, at least protect their country. Of course, this war is absolutely meaningless, but nevertheless their family has, children have at least some excuse that the father died when it was necessary to defend their homeland. Why did these people from Russia beg for? After a few months, everyone will be known to everyone that it was a completely meaningless war from Russia, and these children grow, and they will not be proud of their fathers.

These 5 million rubles promise them for the deceased family member, and they calm down

- I was struck by the words of Ella Polyakova from the organization of "Mother of St. Petersburg" that she has the impression that in recent years mother began to fight for her children, less and less desire for relatives to defend the children who were sent to this war, compared to what the activity of mothers during the Chechen wars was. She even wonders whether the postmodernist, in which Russia has been plunged now, remained in this void, real maternal feelings. Well, it is clear that someone had them.

- This is very scary. When Ella said this, I was also a little dumbfounded, because this woman helps mothers to find or save her sons, whether it was war or just hazing in the army. And suddenly she says: "Do we have a mother at all?" It's scary. It turns out that these 5 million rubles promise them for the deceased family member, and they calm down on this. They can buy two apartments in the provinces, they have many more children, who have nothing to feed and support. And then suddenly manna heavenly - money! That is, it feels like they are also ready to sell their son. You and I do not understand this, right?

She says: "Son, my little", and tears begin to pour immediately

- It is impossible, of course, to blame everyone in this terrible bargain, but such an impression from Polyakova’s words that after paying money they are ready to talk about anything else, not screaming, and thus give a green light so that this will happen to other boys from other families.

- Well, on the other hand, we see this mother, who talks and cries on the phone. When I mounted, I stopped and cried a hundred times in this place, because for me it is a crazy scene.

- Mom, who managed to get through to her son. She thought that she would never hear his voices.

- Yes. We imagine warriors, tough men, and she tells him: “Son, my little”, and tears begin to pour immediately, and I think about my grandson, which is so cute. That is, this twenty-year-old guy who might be, I didn’t know, maybe I didn’t have time - this is just someone's little boy, some kind of unhappy woman. All this period, these six months that I thought on this topic, looked through the shooting, I constantly quoted - I often read my grandson with a heart - this: this: this: this: this: this: this: this: this

And what kind of mother

Agrees to give

His dear child -

Teddy bear, wolf cub,

Elephant ...

This is the "cockroach" of Chukovsky. And so they are shaking there, they are afraid, and yet they give him so that this stuffed poor crumb is tortured. After all, this was so in Stalin's times, and we returned again, we came to the other way that yes, I don’t want to give children, but they give it! And the song of Vertinsky, which sounds in the film, is generally 1917. She is still, just every word is relevant. "They threw them with Christmas trees, knead them with mud ..." It is scary that all this is repeated. As if Russia is stomping on the spot.

They believe, believe!

- I just flew from the Crimea, two days ago. People in the Crimea say that a year ago, the Nazis came to power a year ago on the Maidan, and if Russia had not taken them to them, then people from the Maidan with sticks, they would have come to them with batons and they would all be killed there.

- That is, they still believe in it?

- They believe, believe! So I was in Sevastopol two days ago: helicopters fly, I ask why, what happened? "Because the American warship is approaching us at sea!"

“But when you turn off the record, they say something else?”

I haven’t seen such a fear anywhere - probably only in Chechnya

- Half of those people we talked to, they say behind the scenes, “we were thrown back 30 years ago,” that this is all terrible, they cannot see their relatives. Yes. But they are wildly afraid of everything! I haven’t seen such a fear anywhere yet - probably, only in Chechnya, when people are afraid for their lives and cannot say what they think. But in Russia as a whole, it seems to me, even over 15 years of Putin’s reign, people still do not have such fear.

- Such fear as in Crimea now?

- Yes, Crimea just has become Chechnya now, my impression is. For example, I was in Bakhchisarai and went into the Tatar souvenirs store. There is a woman, it advertises me Tatar souvenirs, and I ask: "Are you a Tatar?" She says: "Oh, God forbid." I say: "What is it?" - "This is the fifth column." That is, such concepts. People do not know what the fifth column is. The conversation is over. It is located in the center of the district where the Tatars live, she sells Tatar national jewelry, she earns money on this, but she hates it because they are a “fifth column”. What does it all mean? For example, I cannot talk to such people.

Strelkov came to him, pinned him the order, he now walks with the cane

- And most importantly, among the separatists there are people close to me. Alexander Averin, one of the National Boodles, he is one of the main characters of my film about the opposition. Sasha Averin, a wonderful boy, with whom we traveled to free his wife from prison, for whom he had saved champagne for three years - he is such a native. I had very motherly feelings for him during all these filming, and then we corresponded. And suddenly he went there, a volunteer. Of course, I had the thought of going there, take some interview from him. In addition, my very close friend of his youth Yura Yurchenko as a volunteer went there, the poet and director. It was in the summer, in my opinion. He was captured there. Then Strelkov gave him some kind of medal or order when he was lying in the hospital. Strelkov came to him, pinned the order to him, he now walks with the cane, because he is wounded and lame and wears this order, and a cohort of some completely insistence who clicked the old women gathered around him in Moscow. These are all the aunts of our age that adore him, and if I God forbid I will write something on his page, they attack me like some kind of crow who are ready to roll me as a traitor to my homeland. That is, I had at least two people there with whom I could meet there. Of course, I would be interested.

A huge circle of acquaintances, with many of which I had to part

“But there was no communication with Averin?”

- I wrote to Averina, I wanted to speak with him personally. But he "fights with the Nazis."

- That is, they explain everything like that?

- Yes. And Yurchenko also “fought with the Nazis”, and so far he is promoting this “struggle with the Nazis” in Moscow.

- Will you send them a movie?

- Yurchenko after the film about Oleg Klimov ( Oleg Klimov. Letters to his own, 2014. - RS ), whose Moscow premiere took place in his basement, Yurchenko, the theater, said that Oleg and I were the traitors of the Motherland. Therefore, everything is finished with him. But this, let's say, 25 or 30 years of friendship. It's scary. This is a huge circle of common acquaintances, with many of which I also had to part.

Very quickly, I got some unpleasant feeling for her, distrust

- That is, it is not easy, as we say in our news, a "civil war in Ukraine", where some prose, others - anti -Russian ones. This is much more complicated, and without Russia's intervention in this conflict there would be completely different. Well, at least think about it, I think that this is the purpose of what I have now shot. To show people that this is a very difficult, ambiguous time and situation.

- Did you have to cut out all scenes from the film with the participation of a woman who created a site about the loss of Russian troops in Ukraine?

- Yes, I found many such sites, I followed them, read. And one of the creators of such sites, Elena Vasilieva, was familiar to me in the old days when I shot a film about the opposition in 2006-2008. Elena Vasilieva from Murmansk. I thought: well, I will go to her in Murmansk. Then it turned out that she left Moscow from Murmansk. Well, I thought: I will go to her to Moscow. But I did not have money, I only made plans that I would go. Then it turned out that she, she said, fled to Kyiv, because in Moscow she was threatened, pursued and so on. In any case, I went to Kyiv, to Ukraine, and there I met with it. In the beginning, I thought that she was the connecting character of the film, but very quickly I had some unpleasant feeling, distrust for her. It always happens for me that if I see someone through the lens of the camera or video camera (and I shot myself), then I have a feeling of love or dislike for some character. And I am very sad when one of my characters causes me some kind of unpleasant, suspicious feeling. Then we went to the ATO zone together, and we were accompanied there, guarded. It was very unpleasant for me how she behaved there. These guys, the SBU-Schikov even nicknamed her "Korolevna", because she always had blankets and pillows with her when everyone was driving in a minibus. When she arrived, her troubles immediately began, she began to suspect her, she wrote on Facebook that she was specially “muddy”, that they specially pierced the wheel of this minibus that she slept in a cold armor and caught a cold. It was complete nonsense because she slept on blankets and pillows, drank cognac from her throat, and she caught a cold, because she constantly went out to smoke at any stop. And to lie about the fact that they specially pierced the wheel so that it does not fall for some meeting-this is such nonsense! In general, that night we ran away from Mariupol - we received data that Russian troops would bomb Mariupol, and we went around the city there many kilometers. Just before this, the bus was shot, and it was dangerous to drive along this road. And then we still broke the wheel - it was very unpleasant for everyone, because at night, in the dark, we had to shine with our flashlights, change, repair. We understood that it was unsafe, we all had to wear helmets and body armor. When I saw this lies, I wrote to her openly: "Elena, why is this? Why are you pouring dirt on people who defended us." And literally a few days later I heard that she was suspected, she was listened to how she communicates with a person from the security organs of Russia, with whom she discusses very rudely and very cynically the exchange of prisoners of war, for which she wants 10-15 thousand dollars. At first, Vasiliev was to some extent the connecting link in my film, I shot a lot. But when my doubts were confirmed by her, and they informed me that she was almost a spy, or a swindler at least, then I began to cut it out of the film. And she received a huge relief from this, although it was worth a lot of time, because it was necessary to connect something else instead of the cut material. I cut out all her presence-the voice, the body, in some frame there her hand is visible, in another frame her leg is visible. It was impossible to cut it all out, but, in general, everything that was possible, I cut everything with great pleasure. Of course, she began to say that this is all a fake, that it was all forgery, that the records of wiretaps are fake. But, as people told me who, unfortunately, listened to all this, are real.