Day: September 4, 2022

Watching the powerful historical testament to the horrors of war and the depths of human cruelty in “The Kiev Trial” at the Venice Film Festival, it can seem that little has changed.

The out-of-competition documentary by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa uses archival footage of a now-forgotten war crimes trial of 15 Germans held in Kyiv in 1946.  

But the atrocities that witnesses recount in the black-and-white film has echoes of war crimes that Ukraine accuses Russia of having committed on its soil in recent months.

The International Criminal Court is currently investigating war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine.

“History repeats itself when we do not learn from history. When we don’t study and don’t want to know,” warned Loznitsa, speaking to journalists Sunday.   

This year, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February, “we all realized we were (back) 80 years ago,” he said.

“We just started to repeat the same things. And it means we did not learn after the war.”

The trial was held in January 1946, just as the Allies’ groundbreaking Nuremberg Trials against Nazi war criminals were beginning  

Stalin sought to use the trials in Kyiv for his own propaganda purposes, Loznitsa said.

The Ukranian director relied on about three hours of footage shot by the Soviets to document the trial, including the arraignment, witness testimony, defense statements and verdict — and finally, the public hanging of the 15 defendants.

The atrocities occurred on different dates and in different places throughout Ukraine, including Babyn Yar, where nearly 34,000 Jews were shot to death in massive pits.

Babyn Yar was the subject of a documentary by Loznitsa last year that played at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Buried alive

In “The Kiev Trial,” witnesses describe the countless horrors inflicted on the local population by the Germans — children shot in their mothers’ arms, the elderly ordered to lie down in pits and shot by drunken firing squads, old men set upon by dogs, people thrown down a mine shaft, patients in a psychiatric hospital shot, and more.

The prosecutor asks one defendant why he felt it necessary to shoot the children in a town that his troops were razing to the ground.  

“Because they were all running around the village,” he replies.

A woman testifies how she played dead after the mass shooting at Babyn Yar. After being buried alive in a pit with the dead and wounded, she managed to crawl out and escaped.   

All 15 defendants are found guilty and given a sentence of death by hanging.  

Gallows are set up in a huge square and a massive crowd assembles to watch the public execution — including the film’s viewers, spectators to the footage.  

“It’s very, very tough but it’s important to watch it,” Loznitsa said.

 Loznitsa said one of the reasons that Russian forces were committing war crimes against Ukrainians today was because Russia itself was never held accountable for its past actions through the Soviet era, as Germany was.  

“Because this kind of trial did not happen, like the Nuremberg Trial, you have this country in such circumstances, how it is now,” he said.  

Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, a Russian director who is one of the producers of the film, agreed.   

“It’s happening because nothing has changed in Russia, in fact,” said Khrzhanovskiy, who is artistic director of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.  

“The head of the country is a KGB guy. Can you imagine that after the Second World War the head of Germany is somebody from the Gestapo?”  
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The little-known story of a teenage scientist who passed U.S. nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union is the subject of a new documentary that premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week.

A Compassionate Spy, by celebrated U.S. filmmaker Steve James, hopes to reignite debate about nuclear weapons at a time of rising geopolitical tensions.

“Climate change and other issues have taken our attention away from that threat, but it’s always been there and it’s coming back,” James told AFP in Venice.

Ted Hall was just 19 when he was recruited to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II that led to the creation of the world’s first nuclear weapon.

Sympathetic to the Communist cause and fearing a future in which only the U.S. had the bomb, Hall decided to pass designs to Moscow.

The story has been largely forgotten, even though Hall came clean in the last years of his life in the 1990s.

“Many people will no doubt conclude that he should not have done it, that his fears of the U.S. becoming fascist or the U.S. pre-emptively striking the Soviet Union were not grounded,” said James, who is known especially for his landmark 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams.

“But there’s no question he did it for the right reasons — he didn’t do it for profit or fame, he did it because he had a genuine fear of what the U.S. is capable of.

“And ultimately, we’re the only ones who have dropped a nuclear bomb, so it’s not an unreasonable fear.”

Although the FBI long suspected Hall of espionage, it was never able to find conclusive evidence.

But the tension for him and his family was almost unbearable, especially when two other spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed in the U.S. in 1953.

The film makes clear the vastly different attitudes towards Russians in 1944, when the Soviet Union was a wartime ally, seen as heroically standing up to Nazism.

Hall later said he would not have done it had he known about the crimes of Joseph Stalin at the time.

“Maybe he was willfully naive,” said James. “But we have to remember, he was so young.”
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The Washington, D.C., area is multicultural, with embassies, international businesses and a host of ethnic restaurants.

People from Ethiopia, El Salvador, the Caribbean and more live in the city and the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

To showcase the food, artisans and traditional dance of these many cultures, the Around the World Cultural Food Festival recently took place for the 6th year. The event is the largest outdoor cultural food festival in the Washington area.

With flags flying, 40 nations were represented at a park in historic Alexandria, Virginia. The event featured African countries, such as Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Thailand, Lebanon, Jamaica and El Salvador were also included.

Corina Serbanescu, the event manager, said the festival provides the opportunity to learn about various cultures.

“Although the Washington area is multinational,” she said, “people don’t necessarily know about one another’s cultures, including the food.”

Feride Ozkan, owner of Istanbul Kitchen in McLean, Virginia, was giving visitors a taste of Turkish cuisine including chicken borek, made with vegetables and mozzarella cheese, and simit, a Turkish bagel.

“Turkish cuisine consists of a melting pot of cultures brought together over the centuries,” she said. “I’m serving food that I learned to cook from my mom that she learned from her mother.”

As Devin Holum from Washington took a bite of borek made with beef, he said, “I had a good time going to Turkey on vacation a few years ago … and I’m enjoying the food and feeling like I’m back in the country again.”

With a long line at another booth, Sus Grondin-Butler was serving Indonesian chicken satay. Considered a national dish of Indonesia, satay is made from skewered and grilled marinated meat.

“What makes Indonesian food unique is that each of the islands has their own style of cuisine. Some is sweeter, while other food is spicier,” she said. “Since Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, there is also that influence.”

Visitors were also given a taste of cultures through traditional dance performances.

As dancers shimmied and moved their hips, the Raqs El Hob dance company performed Egyptian belly dancing.

Adriane Whalen, artistic director of the Washington-based troupe, said, “There’s the beauty of the dance and the costumes, of course, but I also love that it celebrates women coming together. Some of the moves today can be seen in hip hop and jazz dancing.”

Shortly after, the colorfully clad Armonias Peruanas — which means Peruvian Harmony — kicked up their heels.

Lourdes Curay, the troupe’s director, said, “We have hundreds of dances that are unique from different regions of Peru, and we wanted the audience to see the richness of our country.”

Ricardo Martinez, who grew up in El Salvador, danced to the music.

“You can’t help but get on your feet because the music and dancing are so exciting.”

Another popular performance featured Indian dancers from the Kalavaridhi Center for the Performing Arts in Herndon, Virginia.

Kalavaridhi Center founder Sheela Ramanath was born in India.

“Traditional Indian dancing tells stories about right and wrong and draws a lot from Indian mythology,” she said. “The dances are also connected to nature, where every living creature is respected.”

Besides dance, vendors were showing off their artistic sides.

Henna artist Kavita Dutia immigrated from India to the United States 15 years ago.

“The art of applying henna on hands and feet is a very old custom,” she explained as she painted the design of a leaf on a young woman’s hand with a brown paste. “Henna brings happiness and joy to life.”

“I thought it would be fun to do this,” said Cara Shawly, a college student. “It’s pretty and like getting a tattoo but one you know won’t last forever.”

Items from around the world were being sold at the festival.

Monica Mensah from Ghana was selling traditional clothing and baskets. Her business is called Back to the Roots.

“I am here to showcase Ghana,” she said. “I want everyone to know that Ghana has a beautiful culture with peaceful, friendly and welcoming people.” 
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