Marina DROZDOVA
Марина ДРОЗДОВА
Marina DROZDOVA
Aleksandr KISELEV
Александр КИСЕЛЕВ
Aleksandr KISSELEV
Russia, 2005  
documentary
Vstrecha na Elbe
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Встреча на Эльбе

 

 Meeting on the Elbe

 Rencontre sur l'Elbe

 
Directed by : Marina DROZDOVA (Марина ДРОЗДОВА), Aleksandr KISELEV (Александр КИСЕЛЕВ)
 

Plot synopsis
This film is the namesake of the Soviet post-war epic about the end of the Great Patriotic War, in which the myth about the war was created. The film by Marina Drozdova and Aleksander Kiselev unravels this myth: here the historical meeting between the leaders of three countries – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin – is shown from the inside, and the authors try to get to the essence of the event.
The film consists of news reel footage taken by cinematographers from different countries, and recollections of participants of this historic meeting between the leaders of the allied countries, the people who were present there in April 1945.
The film tries to understand what this meeting meant, not for the politicians, but for ordinary people, and what role it played in their lives. Alexander Kiselev and Marina Drozdova do not focus on historical figures, but on less important events: concerts on improvised stages, ban­quets and toasts to friendship, parades, and finally the impressions of Soviet soldiers who came to Europe for the first time in the brief period of reconciliation between the USSR and western countries. Participants of the events recall this all on screen: people who were on the Elbe and in Berlin in April 1945 take part in the film: Georgy Platonov, Aleksey Baranov and Leonid Volodarsky.
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Saint Petersburg International Cine-Forum, St Petersburg (Russia), 2010