Sinner’s Disease-Sasha – HIV in Russia (2011)

Directed by: Jan Jaap Kuiper | 56 minutes | documentary

In ‘Sinner’s Disease’ we follow the story of HIV-infected Sasha, who struggles with a heroin addiction, a pregnancy and an imminent shortage of AIDS inhibitors. Despite her desolate situation, she does not give up. Together with a number of fellow sufferers, she is committed to a wider distribution of AIDS medicines in Russia. During her struggle, however, she encounters a bureaucratic government and a hostile society. From the first, she is told that everything is fine and that the problem is not as bad as she and her fellow activists describe. From the second she mainly gets indifference in return. Shot against the already gray background of Russia, it conveys an image of despondency. The actions of Sasha and associates do not really help much and mainly result in arrests, while the local government does not take a step to tackle the dire shortages.

However, Kuiper avoids the tearjerker fall. Although we as viewers absolutely sympathize with Sasha and mainly see the developments through her eyes, Kuiper keeps an appropriate distance. There is no voiceover and there are no accompanying lyrics. Everything we learn about the subject we learn through Sasha’s images and conversations. That’s sometimes confusing (the images aren’t always shown in chronological order), but it also ensures that the focus stays where it needs to be. ‘Sinner’s Disease’ is not a tear-jerking portrait of a pathetic woman, but above all a documentary about the gap between government and citizens.

Although Sasha is campaigning, in a sense there is no fighting. The government does not seem to be so much trying to thwart AIDS patients, but above all seems to be completely unaware of the situation in which they live. At a certain point this becomes poignantly clear when we hear some officials proclaim that they are indeed tackling the AIDS problem, through education in schools and by making commercials to warn the population of the dangers of AIDS. The faces show that they genuinely don’t realize that this isn’t enough and that the lack of medicine makes the difference between life and death for some people. It becomes even more absurd when we hear a ‘doctor’ say during a television broadcast that the HIV virus does not exist and that it has never been detected in anyone.

During the same television broadcast, a question is also asked which unfortunately Kuiper does not address in his documentary, but which could have provided a more complete picture of the problems he has raised. The question comes from an antisocial-looking woman in the audience who wants to know why she should pay for a couple of drug users’ parties. Although the woman is clearly speaking from her (rather voluminous) abdomen, it does expose a shortcoming in the documentary. After all, we hear Sasha talk about the indifference of the Russian population, but the same population is not mentioned in the film. A missed opportunity, as it could have put Sasha’s actions in a more nuanced light. Although her call for medicines naturally claims a degree of compassion from humanity, you also get the strong impression that she blames society for her own shortcomings. She blames her own lack of discipline and responsibility on society. It’s good that Kuiper doesn’t want to judge this, but you can’t help but think that only one side of the story is being told.

Although some questions remain unanswered, ‘Sinner’s Disease’ is certainly a successful documentary about the sometimes absurd relations between state and citizen in today’s Russia. A country that continues to fascinate with all its rarities.