Press releases

MINSK, 28 August (BelTA) – The film Eastern Corridor of the Belarusfilm Studio will finally get its first international screening 50 years after its release. The film will be screened at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the United States on 25 October 2015, BelTA learnt from the Belarusfilm Studio.

The project is sponsored by Judaic Studies, Institute for Humanities, International Institute, CREES, OVPR, LSA Organize an Event, Hatcher Graduate Library.

The film was shot by Valentin Vinogradov in 1966 (Alexei Kuchar’s script play). Due to its unconventional poetics, the film was silenced upon its release, and became a cinematic phantom, while its authors were banned from cinematography.

Belarusfilm cited the organizers of the Belarusian film screening in the United States as saying: “A forgotten gem of Soviet poetic cinema, filmed in stark expressionistic style, Eastern Corridor is remarkable for its honest depiction of the complex and contradictory reality of wartime Belarus. It is also the rare Soviet film that makes the events of the Holocaust central to the plot, culminating with the tragic scene of the execution of Jews in Minsk ghetto. With its Holocaust scenes shot with unparalleled force and artistic vision, Eastern Corridor should have occupied a major place in the international Holocaust filmography. This screening—which is a US premiere—is an attempt to save this astonishing tour de force from oblivion and restore it to the cinematic history of the Holocaust.”