Jessica Gorter

The Dmitriev Affair

Through a thick layer of snow in the forests of Russia, historian Yuri Dmitriev searches for unmarked and lost graves. His singular efforts have uncovered mass burial sites of those who were killed under Stalin’s “Great Terror” of 1937. With no help from official channels, he traces the dead and rescues their memory from the eternal doom of oblivion. Dmitriev’s riveting story is a tale of one man’s fight against the erasure of history by the state

The Red Soul

More than 50 years after the death of Joseph Stalin, Russia is still divided. Was Stalin a great leader who made Russia into a superpower? Or was he a ruthless dictator, responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people? Virtually no family has been left untouched by the consequences of Stalin’s regime, and in every corner of the country, victims’ families are struggling with history. Throughout society, Stalin’s popularity is growing, and there is a yearning for a sense of national unity. The Red Soul shows how the past lives on in present-day Russia, and thus makes its mark on the future.

900 Days

The documentary focuses on the struggles of those who survived the long siege by German forces during World War II (from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944). The three million inhabitants of Leningrad (now renamed St Petersburg) suffered extremes of starvation and deprivation.

Piter

Brother and sister Gorter made a variegated portrait of Piter, or St. Petersburg, through seven of its inhabitants. Poles apart in age, affluence and personality, their lives cross paths now and then. Elderly people like the 87-year-old Jelena Jakovlevna still live in the past; her apartment has furniture from before the communist revolution and still has a portrait of Stalin on the wall. To a young and successful publicity agent, the names Lenin and Stalin do not mean a whole lot anymore. A former party bigwig is now a thriving capitalist; an ex-journalist who thought the Brezhnev era would never end is on the breadline nowadays. The film, featuring Frank Gorter's striking music, meanwhile also shows life in the streets of St. Petersburg and the diverse interiors of the houses and workplaces of the seven Piter men and women.