Documentary film “Greetings from Siberia”
In the Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Yenyiseiska and other regions, we can still find people who were violently deported from Latvia in 1941 and 1949 – children then, old and disabled people now. They are far from one another, they have no way to communicate amongst themselves. They have been robbed of their native language. Many of them no longer speak Latvian. They have not returned. We don’t know whether they are lost for the Latvian people and Latvian land. That will all depend on “big politics” – something that cannot be foreseen today.
This is a crime that is no different from the monstrous crimes that were committed by German Nazis, but the Soviet crimes are still kept quiet, with some hoping that all of those who can give evidence will soon be dead. Russian has never admitted to the violation of international law, it has never apologised to Latvia or offered any compensation for the moral and material losses that were caused to its people. Those who were thrown into death camps, those who were shot or tortured in the presence of their loved ones, the families that suffered death after violent death, the victims and their children and grandchildren – none of them can understand the lack of courage among Latvia’s politicians. They still hope that in bilateral negotiations with the Russians, Latvia will get them to admit to the fact of this terrible crime.
Author and director: Dzintra Geka
Editor: Armands Zvirbulis
Consultant: Ēriks Lanss
Camera: Aivars Lubānietis, Igors Tūns, Aleksandrs Demčenko
Producer: Dzintra Geka
2004.
Latvia
66min.