Are there any limits to the ways of tormenting and humiliating a human being? 

The person can be locked in the prison or can be send to the Gulag. The person’s body can be tortured. But what about the mind and soul, which somehow cannot be convinced that life in the Soviet Union is the epitome of happiness?...

Authors managed to get to special psychiatric hospitals – the most guarded places in the former Soviet Union. The victims’ shocking narratives crossover with the statements by doctors who were fully committed to the diagnosis and the treatment of “sluggish schizophrenia”.

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Written and directed by Vita Żelakeviciute

Genre: Documentary 58’ 

Production: Drygas Production, Program1 TVP S.A.,
ARTE France, ADR PRODUCTION / France

Cinematography: Jozef Szymura

Music: Paweł Szymański

Editing: Katarzyna Maciejko-Kowalczyk

Sound: Iwo Klimek/ I.M.I. Studio

 

Awards:

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• Grand Prix "White Cobra" - Media Festival "Man in Danger" 2001
   

• Gold Remi - WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival 2002

• Grand Prix - International Days of Documentary Film "Crossroads of Europe" Lublin 2002

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• Special Jury Prize - International Festival of Historical Films in Pessac (France) 2002

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• Audience Award - National Film Festival "Prowincjonalia" 2002