Selective "Justification of terrorism"

Why can you show the victims of the recruiters on the state of state, and in the theater it is impossible

On June 30, a meeting was scheduled for the extension of a preventive measure to the director Zhenya Berkovich and the playwright Svetlana Petriychuk in the Khamovniye District Court of Moscow.

This story began eight years ago. May 27, 2015. Moscow airport. Among those flying to Istanbul is the 20-year-old Varvara Karaulov. A month later, this fourth -year student of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University will become a Russian celebrity, her father, Pavel Karaulov, will bring a daughter from the transit camp of Russian women who left Turkey to Syria to marry the members of the ISIS terrorist organization recognized in Russia. Varya met one of them on the Internet.

Student of Moscow State University and "Second Theater Affairs"

Five months later, the girl will be arrested by the FSB officers, they will accuse her “in preparation for terrorism”, and in December 2016 the Moscow military court will senten her to a four and a half years in a general regime colony. The story of a girl from a prosperous family, who, as the prosecutor said in her trial, “fell in love with a photograph”, has long excited journalists. They literally pursued Karaulov at every step, she was hiding from them and eventually decided to change her name and surname. In fairness, let's say that the case of a student of Moscow State University, who was accused of preparing for terrorism due to her desire to marry a Syrians from the ISIS organization banned in Russia, was not the only case in those years-similar stories happened in other Russian regions. But her story was the most media and scandalous.

After Karaulov was released from the colony ono in 2019, she married a lawyer from the lawyer collegium of her defender, gave birth to her son, and almost forgot about her.

They remembered when the “second theatrical business” arose - on charges of “justification of terrorism” and in May 2023 they took the director of the play “Finist Yazny Falcon” to Zhenya Berkovich and the author of the play Svetlana Petriychuk. The play, which received several diplomas from the Golden Mask’s main Russian theater award, became “criminal” overnight.

In an interview with Novaya Gazeta already from the pre -trial detention center

Svetlana Petriychuk said that in the work on the play, she used materials in the case of Barbara Karaulova, her interview, real judicial conversations.

Indeed, the play consists in many ways of court scenes, the judge’s conversations with the accused, with the very girls who were recruited by the ruthless “finists”. The criminal case against the authors of this deeply dramatic, complicated and sad performance was instituted by the denunciation of certain spectators and after an unprecedented “comprehensive destructive examination” by Roman Silantyev, a specialist in this very destructive (unknown world of science), who saw not only the “heroization of terrorists”, but also a “radical Feminism ”, although famous experts who took the performance for the Golden Mask, as well as the jury of this state prize, watched the play before him. And even earlier, the Ministry of Culture of Russia allocated the money for the production of this performance, which is difficult to suspect of myopia on the harmfulness of the topic.

Play and the series on the "State order"

In 2018–2019, when the state had a great interest in the topic of recruiting young women to Syria, and in addition to interest, it was a desire to award society from such practices with the help of artistic works, creators - theatrical figures and filmmakers passionately tried to respond to this request of the state and society.

In the same 2019, by order of the Russian television company, the Russian television channel “Russia 1” was written scenario of the series “On the edge”. The role of the mother of one of the three girls recruited by a supporter of the so -called “caliphate” (as the authors call ISIS, the prohibited terrorist organization in Russia) was played by actress Julia Aug. She recalls how almost simultaneously she read the script of the series and the play “Finist Yasny Falcon”:

QUOTE

Julia Aug:

“I read the play by Sveta Petriychuk and this scenario almost at the same time. The first reading of the play took place as part of the Volodinsky Festival in St. Petersburg. This is such a competition, which is represented by completely new plays that have not been read anywhere before. And Zhenya Berkovich and I were in the jury of this competition, this first reading. There were many different plays, and among them was the “Finist's Yasny Falcon”. And I know that my wife immediately liked the play. She gave her the highest marks. And in parallel, the script of the series “On the edge” flew to me. In the accompanying letter from the company "Russian" (with which I had already worked before), it was said that the series will shoot for the Russia 1 television channel, it was said that this is an important, very relevant play. And so this scenario “flew” to me, I read it and understand that I have just read it somewhere, and I begin to compare the play and the script. It is clear that they are different. But the story of one girl out of three in the series and the story of a student-student who went to Turkey with lace underwear in a suitcase-she is the same. At first I even thought that one person wrote the play and script, because the name of the screenwriter was unknown to me. So I decided: maybe this is Svetlana Petriychuk under the pseudonym. Then I learned that Sveta worked on a play based on court materials, and it seemed to me that the series was also written on the basis of court materials. That is, the stories of the girls who turned out to be hostage from the Arab terrorists are similar in the series “On the edge” and in the play “The Finist Yasny Falcon”. And these girls turned out there because they experienced violence and Abuez in their homeland. They felt unnecessary to their native family, and these Arab men, whom they met on the Internet, who said good words to them, supported them, became a real outlet for them. Nobody heard the girls at home and did not want to hear, they were humiliated and oppressed in every possible way. Both the play and the series were that violence gives rise to violence and the flight to the secret heavenly bright groom ends with the same violence and an absolute catastrophe for the girls themselves. You begin to sympathize with them endlessly because they were victims from all sides. I played the mother of one of the girls who is subjected to constant violence in the family, not only that mother herself is absolutely toxic, she does not hear her daughter, does not know how to listen to her, only requires something from her endlessly, in addition to everything, her mother has a new husband, aggressive and dominant. He and mother Abuzit, constantly demanding submission, and is constantly mocking this girl. And the key scene in the film confirms all this: at night, mother hears some kind of noise, enters the room to her daughter and sees how her husband tries to rape her daughter. And instead of protecting her daughter, she screams at her: "He is to blame, a prostitute." And the daughter, offended and humiliated, meets on the Internet with the Arab, leaves for conditional Syria and finds himself hostage in his family. In the series, two girls manage to escape, escaping from this conditional “caliphate”, one dies. That in the play, that in the series personally I did not have sympathy for terrorism, but a sense of incredible horror before violence that gives rise to violence. And it is clear that if you do not deal with such moments in her own house, it is very difficult to grow a full -fledged person, because she always feels a crippled victim, which is very easy to manipulate. This is what Igilovites use here ”(the organization is prohibited in the Russian Federation).

Julia Aug says that in 2019, when the series was shot, such documentary stories were so hearing both in society and in the media, that there was no “second -plan” in them, and there was a request in the state and in society - to deal with this topic and understand what happened to these girls and why they succumbed to recruitment and were ready to run to the Igilovites.

“Society was supposed to solve their problems in the first place, and then the girls would not have to run somewhere. And to some extent, it was a state request for mitigation of morals in our society, ”says Julia Aug. And he adds: - Now there is no such request for humanization. "

The series “On the Territory”, shown on the “Russia 1” channel, gained 25 million views in Yotube, which is many times higher than the number of views in the same YouTube performance “Finist Yasny Falcon”.

The law is harsh, but selective

I watched six hours of this series and agree with actress Julia Aug: the message of the series and the performance are very similar. The authors of the series and the play - of course, achieve the same goal by different artistic means.

The series “On the Territory” is inhabited by fictional characters, which, of course, are also focused on the history of Barbara Karaulova and other victims of the Islamist fundamentalists. One of the three heroines is Lena Polyakova, an excellent student who knows several languages, just like Karaulova, her parents get divorced, just like Karaulova’s parents, she has a beloved dog, etc. She secretly accepts Islam from her parents to please her “groom”. True, in reality, Varvara Karaulova met her “narrowed” on the Internet, and Lena Polyakova, the heroine of the series “On the Territory” fell in love and accepted Islam, getting acquainted with the young Muslim guy in real life.

In the play “Finist Yasny Falcon”, the story of one of the heroines also largely repeats the story of Karaulova.

The main difference between the series and the play is quite predictable and understandable. In the series, designed for a mass audience, there is practically a happy end: two of the three girls return from the Caliphate, they are waiting for a calm peaceful life, and they are going to marry good guys, realizing that they were brutally mistaken, deciding to escape from home.

The play “Finist Yasny Falcon” is closer to the truth of life: the girls who fled from the recruiters will go to prison after returning to Russia, they will be awaiting a harsh court and punishment. Obviously, the series is not needed by such a “truth of life”. The mass viewer needed a template drama for the Russia TV channel. So this series turned out. But an important message was laid inside: "Do not go to the recruiters, do not go, children, walk to Africa."

The condemnation of a society in which violence pushing young girls to flight from this unfair society rules is the message of the play “Finist's Yasny Falcon”.

The authors of the play are simply much more honest than the authors of the series - they not only sympathize with the victims of the recruiters, they also show what naivety and weakness can lead to a prison.

When I watched the six -hour series “On the edge”, I always caught myself on a completely seditious thought:

• “Why is the notorious selectivity of the law we practice everywhere? Why on the Russia TV channel you can safely and without consequences talk about the victims of the recruiters, and the play “Finist Yasny Falcon”, shown in small theater halls, is becoming “justification of terrorism” overnight? ”

• Why do our law enforcement agencies do not respect and trust their own state so much?

• How does it turn out that the state order overnight becomes a crime?

• How so it turns out that the play, in which the plan of the playwright and director coincided with the request of the state and society, suddenly turned out to be criminal?

• Maybe those who instituted a criminal case hurried and they should “turn back”?

The questions have remained unanswered so far. And Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk have been sitting in the female pre -trial detention center for almost two months for almost two months. It is still not clear how to interpret the anti -terrorist performance as “justification of terrorism” and create a “second theatrical business from scratch, holding in the pre -trial detention center and playwright, young women who are waiting for families at home.

The number of views of the play "Finist Yasny Falcon" in YouTube has increased many times.