Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
1970s (?) Soviet (Ukranian) production about the Nazi atrocities at Babi Yar / Kiev during World War Two. Includes interviews with survivors and archival footage and stills. This is intercut w/ footage of neo-Nazis and other Fascist groups operating in the present (70s). Original summary: "This incredible and powerful documentary tells its grim tale graphically. Captured footage from the retreating Nazi troops sadly depicts the destruction of over 200,000 people murdered in the most atrocious ways. They were trade unionists, Communists, Jews, children, old people, women. They were a diverse group commonly linked by the fact that they lived on Soviet soil and were principally anti-fascist. They were gassed, hanged, machine-gunned and killed with buzz-saws by the Nazis, who filmed it all and then simply pushed all the bodies in the large Ukrainian ravine, Babi Yar."
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
UKRAINIAN STUDIO OF TV FILMS PRESENTS... establishing shots of the city of Kiev, many of which are aerials, as a narrator (VITALY KOROTYCH, a poet) leads us into the crux of the film. Cut to tight LS's of a misty area near the infamous ravine, followed by shots of the ravine. Cut to TITLE CARD. More panning or tilting shots of the ravine and immediate area. MS of Vitaly holding a microphone and talking to the camera while standing by the ravine. Panning ECU's of buds blossoming on trees near the site.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Excellent montage: MS of two nurses tending to a table full of newborn babies; MS's of ADOLF HITLER delivering a typically fiery speech; MS's and tight LS's of Nazi Youth in training; CU's and MS's of German people attending a rally, saluting their leaders; CU's of Nazi emblems and insignias (eagles, swastikas, etc); CU's of salutes; low angle tight LS of Luftwaffe flying in formation; tight LS of a raging fire in a captured village; MS of Nazi troops passing by camera; MS's of a Neo-Nazi rally as people pass by the camera with placards bearing, "Hitler Was Right" and "Hitler Forever"; MS's and CU's of a soldier walking across the chests of several fellow military men in a wooded area.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Montage of the Nazis entering and occupying Kiev: great MS of flowers on a bush (in FG), smoke passing by in BG; tight LS's of tanks and military vehicles driving through the streets; low angle tight LS of a Nazi flag being raised atop a Kiev church, replacing an Orthodox cross; MS of a Nazi cameraman filming the events; CU of a skull and crossbones, HALT written below it. MS of Nazi troopers kicking down the door of a Kiev home.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
MS of FYDOR ZAVERTANNY holding a microphone, standing by the ravine and talking to the camera about his recollections of Babi Yar. Cut to shots of Babi Yar survivors, stills of them when they were young and motion footage of them as they were when this film was made: YAKOV STEYUK, DAVID BUDNIK, LEONID OSTROVSKY, ZAKHAR TRUBAKOV, and YAKOV KAPER. Travelling MS through the woods near Babi Yar. Zooming CU of a subtle stream in the vicinity.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Still of a young VLADIMIR DAVYDOV, followed by 1950's newsreel footage of him standing by Babi Yar and talking to the camera about what occured there.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
MS of Nazi gunman unloading a Browning machine gun on Russians hanging by their hands. Stills of dead Russian Jews. Stills of Nazis torturing Ukranians. Another quick MS of a Nazi soldier shooting a Browning on helpless Ukranians. FO.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
FI on tight LS's of "The Road of Death" in Kiev, circa 1970's as passenger cars flow through the shady streets. More establishing shots of Babi Yar. CU of leaflet given to Ukrainian people by the Nazis, ordering all local Jews to congregate at a certain place and time or risk being shot on sight.(typeface is in Russian). MS of GENYA BATASHOVA standing on an urban Kiev street, holding a microphone and talking to the camera about her recollections of the event.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Cut to montage of Ukrainian people obeying Nazi edict: CU's of smiling Nazi soldiers; CU's of worrysome children and elderly; MS of soldier taking wallets and valuables from seated Ukrainian peasant; panning CU of Ukrainian peoples personal belongings (shoes, pottery, combs, jewelry, toys, etc.).
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
MS of GALINA VOYTYUK standing by the ravine, holding a microphone and telling her recollections of the Kiev concentration camp.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Children montage: CU of dolls heaped in a pile; stills of Ukrainian children killed by the Nazis; MS of children rolling up their sleeves to show concentration camp ID numbers tattooed on their forearms; MS and CU of weakened children walking by the camera in tattered clothes; MS of a dolly pushing towards a crematory furnace; subjective shot, the camera heading towards the furnace's darkened stillness. Still of naked Jewish mothers huddled in a line with their children. Panning tight LS of Babi Yar ravine, circa late 1940's, early 1950's. Sad MS's of dead Ukrainian children.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Still of DINA PRONICHEVA, followed by MS's of her giving testimony at a war crimes tribunal, in regards to the atrocities which occured at Babi Yar, her horrific tale of survival; MS's and tight LS's of the packed courtroom as people crane their heads to get a better view; tilting MS of bodies at the bottom of the ravine; still of a Nazi soldier standing at the top of the ravine and aiming his rifle downward; excellent tight LS from the back of the courtroom as sunlight pours, absolutely drenches the room in a phosphorous light; ends with panning tight LS of the ravine's walls.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Zooming CU of a German newspaper ad depicting Hitler and related propaganda; MS of Neo-Nazis marching with placards (same shot as before). Cut to CU's and MS's of JOSEPH GOEBBELS, HERMANN GOERING and other high-ranking Nazi officers during the Nuremburg trial. Cut to map of concentration camp locations in or near Germany, including Dachau, Buchenwald, Terezin and Ravensbruck. Montage of early German persecution: MS of civilian thugs slingshoting a rock through the window of a store owned by a Jew; tight LS of a military truck filled with flag-waving Nazi soldiers driving through the streets; tight LS of a yellow star being drawn on a shop window as a large crowd watches on; CU's of Jewish elderly man and children, barbed wire superimposed over them; MS's of Jewish families being herded onto railroad cars; MS's of Nazi soldiers standing on streets, watching folks pass by.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
MS's of Neo-Nazi party members marching with White Power signs, standing in a secluded wooded area with rifles, riding trucks littered by swastikas and Nazi salutes.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Excellent montage of the Babi Yar atrocity: zooming tight LS of the moon as a flare brightens right in front of it; tight LS of Babi Yar ravine's walls; MS's of Nazi soldiers standing in the misty woods adjacent to the ravine; excellent CU of a Nazi soldier taking a deep drag off a cigarette; grainy tight LS of a line of Jews being led slowly along a hilly path; CU's of barking German Sheperds; stills and motion CU's of Jews at Babi Yar, naked and standing scared by the pit; CU's of crying children; CU of a girls feet as (we are to assume) a Nazi forces her to drop her underwear. MS's of German soldiers firing Browning machine guns (CU of the ground festering with spent shells); stills of Jews kneeling by a pit filled with bodies as a Nazi soldiers stands with a gun to the back of the Jew's head; stills and motion footage of the slaughtered; grainy MS of two Nazi soldiers tossing a body into a pit, followed by MS of officer unloading his Luger; CU of a man washing blood from his arms in a stream; slo mo MS of a body sliding down a wall of a ravine and onto a mess of dead; stills of the dead; MS's of bulldozers pushing huge piles of dead into a pit.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
The Russians fight the Nazi menace. Montage: CU's of the proud Soviet men and women as they mentally prepare for battle; tight LS's of explosions and fires, missles being sent into the air by the dozen; MS of a Nazi flag being torn from a pole; low angle MS of a tank racing by the camera; MS's of soldiers rushing across a smoky field; excellent CU of German Crosses being tossed into a pile; MS's and tight LS's of defeated German soldiers and offiecers being led through Soviet streets as a host of sanitation department trucks wash the streets behind them (fantastic shot.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Cut to MS of Vitaly watching the film in a projection room, the bright bulb in BG, until the films ends, the lights flicker on and he talks to the camera about German prisoners, washing the streets of the filth, and the "dirty water that slipped into the ocean".
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
MS's of Zionist and anti-Soviet groups gathering on a street corner on a sunny day; CU's of signs and banners which read, "Freedom For Russia" and "Glory to the Heroic Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Fighters For Liberty!" Montage as Ukrainians grieve: MS's of women crying over the bodies of loved ones the Nazis murdered; CU's of the dead; MSof several half-buried bodies at the bottom of Babi Yar ravine; tight LS of the bodies lined up in a field as women pass by to grieve.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Still of YAKOV STEYUK as a young man, followed by MS of him in the 1970's, holding a microphone while standing by the ravine and talking to the camera about his experience at Babi Yar, 1943, where, upon Nazi orders, he and several other inmates disinterred hundred of corpses from Babi Yar to be cremated.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
MS's of corpses being carried on crude wood gurneys, MS's of stacks of corpses, tight LS of the corpse pyre being cremated in a field. Aerial shot of Kiev circa 1943, many bombed-out or simply destroyed buildings as Vitaly gives horrific population statistics (in 1941 there were approximately 900,000 people whereas in 1943 there were less than 200,000). Tight LS of a pile of corpses, followed by a panning CU of dozens of human lower palettes.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Still of YAKOV KAPER as a young man, followed by MS of him circa 1970, holding a mic and standing by the ravine. He talks about how he and several others escaped Babi Yar before being executed themselves.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
MS of a Ku Klux Klan member (in hoods and sheets) waving a fiery stick at night; CU of a burning cross; MS of several Klansmen standing before the fiery cross. MS of Klansmen walking by camera, saluting the cross. CU's of them lifting their hoods. Daytime MS's of several Klansmen (sill in hoods and sheets) representing the United Klansmen of America and burning a Soviet flag outside a federal building (either a governor's mansion or quite possibly the White House, hard to tell due to framing).
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Montage damning America profliferation in Vietnam: MS's and tight LS's of Navy Tomcats fin flight; panning MS of American soldiers storming a beach; shots of explosions, including a good one of a napalm bomb exploding and its wrath tearing down a row of trees; nice aerial shots of a plane's belly opening and unloading dozens of bombs; MS's of Vietnamese children crying or yelling in fear; aerial shot of a Vietnamese building on fire; amazing MS of a young Vietnamese man on fire (immolation) stumbling through the jungle, seemingly on the verge of death.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
MS's of modern worldwide atrocities in Chile (MS of a soldier, dozens of Chilean prisoners in BG; CU of a man's hands being bound behind his back; CU of a soldier walking on bodies; CU of a soldier putting his hand over the camera, shunning it away), and the 20 year trail of former Nazi who destroyed an entire Italian town (CU and MS as he struts defiantly through an empty prison). Cut to MS's of people marching in pro-fascist parades, and CU's of Neo-Nazi graffitti on graves in cemeteries. MS of a man thumbing his nose and sticking his tongue out at the camera.
Babi Yar: Lessons Of History
Cut to color footage, an ECU of barbed wire: focus and zoom out to Holocaust memorial at the site of a former concentration camp; MS of a memorial statue, a man holding the limp body of another man. CU of a fist raised into the air at a peace rally. MS of protestors marching, zoom in to a man's placard, reads, "No Nazis Wanted Here!" Great shots of protests from across the globe, in South Korea, England and the United States. Panning CU of protestors linked arm in arm. Closing montage of Babi Yar memorial as survivors and children place flowers and wreaths there. MS details of the ornate statue. Great slo mo MS of an adorable child riding a tricycle somberly past the abundant flowers.