Blood on the Blade The film uses documents from declassified case #2695 and archival materials from STASI (Ministry of State Security of the GDR)
For reference: "Jagdkommando Group". Company commander Hauptmann Bach. His deputy passes under the letter K – Russian, presumably Nicholas.
All the punitive officers had the same stroke of murder during the war. Mass shootings, violence, burning of villages and villages, looting and looting. The said Sonderkommando was no special exception; it also took part in the torture, torture and execution of the Soviet population in the occupied territories. And, of course, it included traitors who stained their hands in the blood of innocent women, children and the elderly. In our case, one of them was Nikolai Lukin, who became a peacetime dentist and tried to hide his past from the criminal investigation and state security.
He did not try to hide, but did not advertise his activities, because he knew that police officers and local apparatchiks from the KGB were already on his trail. Lukin is known for the fact that during his atrocities and abuses he photographed victims, collecting photos and cards of doomed people in his eerie portfolio. The sadistic mind, coupled with the mania of the cannibal, played a cruel joke with him, it was his work that led the investigation into the search for this fierce photographer. There were still those who remembered his deeds when he first filmed, and then deftly wielded a knife, instantly cutting off someone’s life and fate.
The third film by Anton Grishin leads his story in the usual manner, succinctly laying before the audience all the facts, excerpts from documents and the words of eyewitnesses. This is a terrible movie, it does not lower the bar, trying to immerse the viewer in that sinister atmosphere, when the huts burned, drove people to be shot and mocked them by their own vile executioners. Lukin took souvenir photographs, was in the authority of the Nazis and even became an agent of German intelligence. However, all this did not help him, retribution overtook the criminal for many years. The Soviet authorities carried out a long, persistent and painstaking work to identify the beast into the light.
It is puzzling that after the death penalty was announced to Lukin, a humanist appeared abroad, calling on judges to ensure that everyone has the right to life. But Lukin himself did not give such a right to his victims, he basely and rudely trampled on the fate of others, for which he paid in peacetime. To be honest, watching Grishin’s short reports is hard and sad, realizing that savage cruelty is still rampant on the planet. It is as if evil has again broken loose and begging for blood, as if repeating a nightmare long forgotten by everyone. This falls on the soul of a heavy stone, pressing more and more every day.
Just imagine that the murderer operated only with a camera and a knife, only his sight instilled in the soul of the villagers deep terror and awe. Lukin listened to the owners, the animal essence did not give him peace. For their connection with the guerrillas, massacres, and attacks were carried out on peaceful and weak citizens who bore the brunt of the occupation on their shoulders. Anton Grishin erects a monument in honor of the huge number of victims with his works, mournfully hoping that this will never happen again. The director says that any violence will be punished and justice will prevail.
Of course, many Nazi henchmen were able to avoid punishment, but the case of Lukin shows that any small thing can put a scoundrel behind bars. Especially when the memory of the people is alive and there are witnesses to indescribable events, when the world was desperately shaken by boundless evil, hatred and aggression. One would like to believe that one day all the vultures of secrecy will fall and we will see how thin the line between civilization and animal guts is, for such atrocities can only be done by a wild predator with foam at the mouth. Let’s hope that someday tearful eyes on screen will hold people to account and make us rethink our behavior.
Anton Grishin did everything he could in his place. His trilogy of reporting sounds pressing and harsh, but we need documentary filmmakers like that. Yes, it is scary, bitter and wild, but without such works a person will very quickly forget about the lessons of history and again take up the old. In principle, the authors sum up the result quite simple and open – each crime is followed by severe punishment, retribution and punishment. Especially in those cases when there was a military outrage, where many people died and a great grief was created. Perhaps they are working on them now, because they do not have a statute of limitations, and they are not subject to appeal.
P.S. In the initial and final credits, the authors made a spelling error, the word “investigator” was written through the letter a. It seems like an annoying little thing, but still somehow unprofessional.
7 out of 10
