09.05.2022

Since the end of World War II in 1945, Russia has celebrated Victory Day every year on 9 May with an array of organised events and speeches. This is meant to commemorate the suffering of the "Great Patriotic War", to learn its lessons and to keep the war from being forgotten. But what did this national holiday actually look like in 2022, just months after Putin ordered a massive attack on neighbouring Ukraine? Director Nicole Philmon filmed the crowds at multiple locations in festively decorated St. Petersburg, capturing the prevailing collective mood. While eyewitnesses to history are busy visiting schools and telling stories, out in the streets the people sing the same old folk songs again and again, until the situation devolves further, culminating in the brutish chanting of xenophobic slogans in a multigenerational choir. The current war against Ukraine is placed in a false context using stories from the era of German National-Socialism, creating an atmosphere that attempts to justify any and all types of military action undertaken by Russia. The masses lapse into a state of euphoria that is simultaneously cynical and terrifying – cementing the film's status as a hopeless and paradoxical document.