The Dmitriev Affair (The Netherlands; 2023; 95min; Russian)
Director: Jessica Gorter
Deep in the forests of Russia, against the wishes of the authorities, 60-year-old Yuri Dmitriev searched for the mass graves of Stalin’s era of terror, until he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in a penal colony. Closely following Yuri, the film depicts the shocking ways in which the Russian state treats its citizens and rewrites history.
Jessica Gorter
Jessica Gorter is a Dutch documentary filmmaker. She studied directing and editing at the Dutch Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam. She lived in the United States as a teenager, and after completing her studies, worked and traveled in Russia for a longer period of time. Her experiences in both of these worlds, coupled with her passion for photography, form an important basis for her further works. Her award-winning films have been screened worldwide at film festivals and universities, and have been theatrically released and broadcast internationally. She has also directed for Dutch television (Human, VPRO) and worked as an editor for various documentaries. Her documentary, 900 Days (2011), was awarded best Dutch film at IDFA 2011.