Silent Deportation documentary about persecution of Crimean Tatars shown in Kyiv

On December 10, international Human Rights Day, Silent Deportation documentary about the fate of Crimean Tatar families, who fell under Russian repression and were forced out of their native peninsula under the pressure of the occupation authorities, was presented in Kyiv. The authors of the film are editor of the Radio Liberty’s Crimea.Realities project Anzhelika Rudenko and director-screenwriter Dmytro Dzhulai, cameraman – Mykyta Isayko, producer – Elvina Seyitbullayeva. 

Politicians, representatives of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, human rights defenders, relatives of political prisoners and civic activists were the audience at the pre-premiere screening. 

The authors told seven stories of people who were persecuted by Russian security forces in the occupied Crimea. Those people were forced to leave after the capture of the peninsula, they had to flee not to end up in the Russian army after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The heroes started life from scratch together with four children. They fought for the Ukrainian Crimea, were at war, survived at Azovstal steelworks and Olenivka penal facility. Some of them worked as teachers, doctors, survived torture and abuse and are now not afraid to testify against Russia’s security system. 

Journalists of the project spoke with exiles in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Belgium, Turkey, as well as with those who, despite the pressure, did not leave their native homes in the occupied Crimea. The film uses unique footage from the private archives of the film’s heroes, some of them for the first time, the organizers note. 

The author of the film, Anzhelika Rudenko, believes that the audience will be shocked. 

“Memory is erased. And we covered the history of 10 years of occupation,” she adds. 

After the pre-premiere screening of the documentary, a discussion took place with the participation of Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Tamila Tasheva, CrimeaSOS analyst Yevhen Yaroshenko and Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov. The discussion was moderated by head of Human Rights Centre ZMINA Tetiana Pechonchyk. 

“Human Rights Day brings us back to the question of how effective the UN system and the human rights protection mechanisms built into it are at the moment. After all, the Russian Federation ignores not only appeals and resolutions, it also ignores the decisions of judges, which are binding. And this documentary, in particular, is about impunity. The aggression of the Russian Federation is an evil that is coming back to us and will come back if it is not punished. Not many countries have recognized the deportation of the Crimean Tatars as genocide, so much work with the international community must be done. In particular, it’s crucial to say that even now Russia deports Crimean Tatars but already in a hybrid format,” Pechonchyk comments. 

On December 13, you can watch the big premiere of the documentary on Radio Liberty’s YouTube channel and during the Ukrainian national telethon. 

The documentary was shown in cooperation with CrimeaSOS and Human Rights Centre ZMINA. 

Photo credit: Serhiy Nuzhnenko / Radio Liberty