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For the most part, young Russians sent to Chechnya in the "elite troops” haven’t the slightest military training. Once in the theater of operations, the morale of these youths, confronted with a harsh reality - suffering, wounds and the likelihood of death - hits rock bottom. The heart-wrenching letters they write to their mothers often read like farewells. Once dead, these soldiers no longer interest the army. It is the victims’ mothers who must see to the task of identifying the bodies and burying their children. They go to the battlefield and conduct their own inquiry, or travel to Rostov-on-the-Don, where the charred or mutilated remains of soldiers are piled up out of sight inside refrigerated cars which have just arrived from Chechnya.

Poland - 2000 - 54 mn - Betacam SP - Colour

Réalisation Mariusz Malec Scénario Mariusz Malec Image Sergiej Czernobajew Son Piotr Bielawski Montage Krzysztof Szpetmanski Musique Jan Tomaszewski, Aleksander Rozenbaum

Production et Ventes Telewizja Polska SA, Program 2, ul. Jana Pawla Woronicza 17, 00-999 Varsovie, Pologne Tél : +48 22 547 7222 Fax : +48 22 547 7796 E-mail : festivals@tvp.pl Co-Production ARTE France