"Down with the draft slavery!"

Film about modern Russia, shot at the military registration and enlistment office: Artdokfest

In Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, in December 2016, the Artdokfest documentary festival will be held. Twice a week, the President of the festival Vitaly Mansky tells at Medusa about all films participating in the competition. In this material, the director represents the painting “Belief” by Tatyana Glekova (Russia, 2016).

Before talking about the film itself, I would like to say about the space of this picture. In the Russian Federation, there is a mandatory military duty for all young people who have reached draft age - regardless of views, from religion and from whether they share the country's foreign policy or not. For example, in Georgia we fought officially, in Syria, too, we are silent about Ukraine, because, as our president said, there are no Russian troops there. But for a person who, at the age of 18, should quit everything and join the army, this is already insignificant - officially or not.

According to the law, there is an opportunity to undergo an alternative military service - you can also give two years of your life a native country, but not in the ranks with machine guns and in the sands of the same Syria, but in the houses of the elderly, hospitals and other establishments. Now the question arises of how it is determined and who is determined, whether the person has the right to an alternative service.

It turns out that this is done by a special commission, which is located in the military enlistment office. Representatives of the public and the military decide the fate of man. The film “Beliefs” was shot almost all during the meetings of this commission - young people come and try to defend their beliefs. People are different, different beliefs, motivation too, but one is one: all together they - both conscripts and members of the commission create a very accurate picture of modern Russia in all its extremes.

I think now, a certain part of the readers, closer to the liberal camp, will have sympathy for those who refuse to serve in the army and want to undergo an alternative service. But after looking at the picture, I can say that my sympathies were not always on the side of people with beliefs, although fundamentally I advocate the right of a person to dispose of my life. This is, oddly enough, it conflicts with the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

In general, this is an interesting moment: a person in Russia - although serfdom was canceled back in 1861 - in principle, for the state is serf. I do not know how this happens in other countries, but in Russia the state relates to the population as its property, and the picture of “beliefs”, a very voluminous and important movie, confirms this.

The film was made by a very interesting St. Petersburg director Tatyana Chronicles. She has already participated in Artdokfest, he works a lot in the group [Alexander] Sokurov on his gaming projects.

PS about other films from the competitive program "Artdocfest" can be found here .