FLOWERS OF OCCUPATION

The compilation film Flowers of occupation was compiled by the federal Russian film archive Gosfilmofond. The screening is organized by goEast in cooperation with the Fritz-Bauer-Institute in Frankfurt. Flowers of occupation is a rather sarcastic title. The film by Russian director Igor Grigoriev shows footage which was partially shot by newsreel-cameramen of the Hitler-regime and used for propaganda, therefore being directed from a Nazi point of view which demonstrates the spreading of fascism throughout the Ukraine, White-Russia and Russia in the dark years of the occupation by Hitler’s troops. There are scenes of deportation and humiliation, images from the Lvow ghetto or exhumations. The documentary material is connected with memories of affected persons. „Life and propaganda – where is the truth?“ is a sort of leitmotif. Grigoriev, who won awards for the documentary The unknown war (in cooperation with the US) among others, looks back on 30 years of experience in analysing archive material. The shown footage has been unavailable for a long time.