900 days (2011)

Directed by: Jessica Gorter | 78 minutes | documentary

Closed off from the outside world for three years. Such is the fate faced by the inhabitants of Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) during the Second World War. Although the siege of Leningrad is much less well known than the battle of Stalingrad, for many the turning point of the Second World War, the suffering of the people of Leningrad was no less. In the three years that the city was surrounded by the Germans and attacked, the inhabitants had no place to go. Massive famines, sustained bombardments and the exceptionally harsh Russian winter are just a few examples of what the inhabitants endured during the encirclement of Leningrad. After the war ended, the Russian propaganda apparatus did its utmost to hide the suffering the inhabitants had endured. To this day, the survivors are honored as heroes and not also considered victims.

With the Dutch documentary ‘900 Days’, director Jessica Gorter wants to give a picture of what actually happened in Leningrad at the time of the siege. During previous trips for documentaries about Russia and St. Petersburg, Jessica Gorter became fascinated by a number of stories from survivors of the siege of Leningrad. The fascination with the myth-making and hero-worship of the survivors and the amazement that the pain and trauma of the survivors still go unrecognized were the main motivations for making this documentary.

The story itself is mainly told by a number of very elderly survivors of the siege. In addition, there are also some chilly, recently published statistics from the Russian security service in between. All this is combined with images of the annual parade in St. Petersburg in which the survivors are honored and applauded as heroes. It is the images of the parade that beautifully show the contrast between the stories of the survivors, the misery they endured and the image that the Russian government wants to maintain: that of war heroes. The parade, which is full of joy and streamers, is in stark contrast to the deathly silence surrounding the survivors’ stories and the pain you can still see and feel in their eyes and voice as they tell.

You get chills when you hear the stories of the survivors. Stories of cannibalism, eating cat meat, relatives dying in each other’s arms are a painful look at what went on in Leningrad during the encirclement. You may have a cynical laugh when one of the survivors with small mischievous eyes tells you that cat meat is secretly quite tasty and that he wanted to eat it more often after the war. Unfortunately, this never happened, however, he must admit. For the rest, this documentary is mainly a poignant look at the misery that reigned in Leningrad for three years. It shows how enormously strong the willpower of man to survive can be.

It is interesting to see how the survivors still have their different views on the war. Some have come to believe in the myths created around the siege and proudly show off their numerous medals. This leads to some interesting discussions as the survivors sit around the table and share their different views. ‘900 Days’ knows how to portray the painful contrast between fiction and reality very well and shows that surviving a siege does not make you a war hero. In addition, the film reveals in a revealing way a picture of the harsh reality behind the walls of Leningrad and how the memory of this has been changed by Russian propaganda. Or, as one of the survivors put it very clearly while watching the images of the parade: ‘It is better to look at a blank screen than at this comedy’.