Bless you!

Tatiana Chistova / Poland, Russia / 2020 / Czech Premiere / 30 min.

synopsis

The still unfinished chapter of coping with the epidemic of covid-19 disease is reflected in a documentary composed of audio recordings of emergency calls and footage of the depopulated streets of St. Petersburg. The bleakness of the situation can be felt in the testimonies of pensioners, for whom basic services such as buying food or health care were often unavailable in the imposed isolation. The gaps in awareness of essential matters among both emergency line staff and citizens reveal much about the collapsing social infrastructure of the Russian state that neglects its duties and helps people only by distributing boxes of essential food, for example, porridge for children.

"The old people who are isolated in their buildings were told that the lockdown was being done to protect them. In reality, it’s hard to work out if this is true. They do this to protect the population but not the old people."

The Polish Institute in Prague is the partner of the 25th Ji.hlava IDFF.

biography

Maciej Hamela (1982) studied film directing and French literature in France. After returning to Poland, he founded the Impakt Film production company with Bartek Gliński. Tatiana Chistova (1970) is a Russian filmmaker with a rich professional experience who also collaborated with Alexander Sokurov.