In the third episode of True Story Podcast series, Ivona Remundová talks to the Russian filmmaker Dmitry Bogolyubov about his most recent film. Town of Glory got Special Jury Prize at One World IHRDFF 2020 and we still remember how this project under the name Provincial Town of E snatched three awards at East Doc Platform 2017.
Do you feel young people and children in the West know less and less about World War II? Should we know more? And how should we frame these important stories? In the newest film, Town of Glory, Russian film director Dmitry Bogolyubov shares with us a particular version of "remembering" heroes of the war. We learn about the town and people of Yelnya, 400 km from Moscow, and how propaganda affects the human minds of both adults and children. We asked questions in this vein, and much more, in this interview with Dmitry Bogolyubov during his latest visit to Prague.
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About Town of Glory
The legacy of the Great Patriotic War still resounds loudly in Russia. In today’s aggressive politics, Putin’s crew is using this in order to gain support in a small town that came to symbolize victory over fascism. Nothing interesting happens in Yelnya, a town on Russia’s western edge. Locals are leaving en masse and those who stay have few joys in life. One is the victory over fascism. At the start of the war Stalin allowed the town be symbolically freed – at an enormous cost – so as to inspire hope in his people and strengthen the spirit of heroism. Bogolubov’s personally tinged film tracks two locals and their families for three years. Teenage Masha attends youth army meetings, singing the praises of fallen heroes, ageing Sergei digs up their bones secretly dreaming of change.
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