"Katyn lives and will live" Every nation has places that are a national symbol, a place of worship and memory. The Belarusians have Khatyn. And even though the village is not the largest of the burnt, the name of this village became a symbol of the tragedy of the Belarusian people in that war. What can I say - in the entire XX century. On March 22, 1943, a detachment of Hitler’s punitive forces burned the village of Khatyn together with its inhabitants. In 1969, a memorial was opened on the site of the destroyed village. But it was not another monument. Its creators were ahead of their time, there was a memorial that perpetuated the memory of not only the burned villagers, but also all the villages that shared the fate of Khatyn, as well as all the residents of Belarus, regardless of nationality and religion, destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. These two events – the difficult fate of Khatyn and the construction of the monument – became central to the film.
It seems that everyone knows about the tragedy of Khatyn, as well as hundreds of other Belarusian villages burned by the fascists. From school we absorb the pain and severity of that distant and at the same time close to us time. But a reminder is never too much. The 26-minute painting by Andrei Levchik is dedicated not only to that tragic day of spring 1943, but also to times much earlier and later. The director reveals the history of the village, reveals the secrets of how the famous memorial complex was built two decades later, through what trials and difficulties its authors had to go through. What is the role of Peter Masherov himself in this.
The film consists of several chronologically unequal, but organically related parts. “History” (the shortest of them) is devoted to the origins of Khatyn – from the privilege of Grand Duke Sigismund August of 1551. "Tragedy" describes the circumstances of the death of the village on March 22, 1943 with all its inhabitants: why it suffered this cruel fate, how the burning took place, and who carried it out. However, some managed to survive in the firehouse. Joseph Kaminsky became the prototype of the famous sculptural composition. Someone like Tatiana Karaban was lucky enough to visit on that ill-fated day in a neighboring village with her aunt, while others visited relatives in Khatyn. Memorial, the central theme of the project, reveals the secrets of the construction of the Khatyn memorial complex dedicated to all burnt Belarusian villages. What symbolizes this or that object of the memorial, the revelations of architects, which inspired the embodiment of such ideas as they were defended. In this regard, the film is truly unique.
The film is extremely diverse. These are not only modern impressive shootings, but also fragments of military newsreels, rare footage of the work of the sculptor and architects on the project of the memorial, their memories are already in our days.
9 out of 10