"The least counted on the happy end"

The authorities of the Novouzensk of the Saratov region began the repair of the emergency dormitory. A few weeks ago, journalist Andrei Losk released a film about this house and his inhabitants

In mid -October, journalist Andrei Loshak released his new documentary “Pentagon” - this is the name of an emergency hostel in the city of Novouzensk, Saratov region. In four episodes, the journalist talks about people who live in a house where the contents of the sewer flow into the basement, the roof flows and there is no heating.

The very next day after the release of the first series, the district branch of the Investigative Committee stated that “revealed a video”, which tells about “unsuitable” hostel conditions for life. The security forces began a preliminary investigation. A day later, the head of the federal SK, Alexander Bastrykin, took control of his question. At the end of October, a criminal case of negligence was opened against employees of the Novouzensk administration.

After the release of the film, the governor of the Saratov region Roman Busargin also drew attention to the emergency state of the hostel, writes the publication “Region 64”. After a week and a half, repairs began in the house: the builders have already completed work with water disposal systems in the basement and partially replaced the roof, reports Region 64. The local administration made an estimate for the pentagon cosmetic repairs, they promise to include it in the regional major repairs program. “The course and quality of repair work is under special control by the governor,” Sergei Sokolov, Minister of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities of the Region, told the local publication.

Now electricians are repairing lighting at the entrance of the hostel, the producer Irina Filippova, who maintains a connection with the heroes of the film, told Medusa. According to Filippova, before the start of the repair, local authorities met with residents. “ It is obvious that this is a reaction to the film, the heroes did not write appeals [to the authorities],” the producer says. For the crew, such a reaction of the authorities turned out to be unexpected: like local residents, the creators of the film feared, “as if it were no worse.” About this "Medusa" was told by director Andrei Loshak:

It seemed to me that it was very important to show how the people actually live in a country where the authorities have so much lost adequacy that it climbed into another country to bomb and liberate-while most of Russia lies in ruins. I wanted people to watch the film to come to this simple conclusion. Honestly, positive changes in the life of our heroes have become a surprise for me.

Residents of Pentagon received apartments under a social agreement . Many of them live behind the poverty line with salaries from five to 15 thousand rubles per month. After the film was released, the documentary project team created the Chat “Help Pentagon”. With the help of a chat in which there are now more than a thousand participants, you can make a donation to the residents of the hostel.

What is a poverty feature

There is no single and generally accepted definition of poverty, different countries and international organizations use different income levels as an indicator of poverty levels.

For example, according to the methods of Rosstat, about 15 million people live among the Russians behind the poverty line - this is about every tenth resident of the country. Such people are those whose monthly income is less than 14.2 thousand rubles (5.14 dollars per day). In 2021, Rosstat changed the methodology for determining poverty - instead of the living wage, they began to use the new indicator “Poverty Border”. The poor in Russia then immediately became 2.8 million less. Opponents of the new methodology emphasized that she does not specify where those Russians whose income is higher than the poverty line, but below the subsistence level.

The World Bank and the UN use a completely different meaning for the poverty line - now it is $ 2.15 per day. When using such a technique, only 0.03%, or about 40 thousand, Russians are poor in a global context-while the vast majority of really poor people live in India and Africa countries. On the other hand, for example, in the United States, those who live less than $ 245 per day are considered poor in the United States.

In more detail about the global context of poverty and methods for its comparison in different countries, you can read here .

One of the heroes of the film-an eight-year-old schoolboy Roma-the chat participants have already helped to buy a tablet and paid for online programming courses. “People sacrifice money, send parcels to the heroes, offer initiatives: send the hero to [children's] camp, pay for educational courses, help with moving to another city, send a family on a tourist trip, write to the heroes of support,” says Irina Filippova. - We have not yet thought how many people have already made transfers or sent help. People continue to help every day. "

“If I always believed in civil society, then the adequate reaction of the authorities to the film is really unexpected,” said Loshak:

I am still waiting for a catch or settings: so we were so wealthy from the fact that power in response to criticism does not enhance repression, but honestly tries to solve the problem. Let's see how it all ends. The least, I counted on a happy ending, but so far in Pentagon everything goes out that way.

"Medusa"