DANS GROZNY DANS

SUNDAY 2 NOVEMBER AT 3:40PM UGC SHAFTESBURY AVE SCREEN 1

Country Russia Running Time 75 mins Format 35mm Dir/S'play Jos de Putter Prod Frank van den Engel, Zeppers / Ikon DoP Vladas Naudzius Editor Stefan Kamp Composer Vincent van Warmerdam Print Source Laura Bronkers, Zeppers Film & TV T +31 20 675 85 94 E zeppers@xs4all.nl

The Damned and the Sacred concerns a dance ensemble from the ravaged Chechen city of Grozny. We follow the group, comprised of children between the ages of six and sixteen, on their tour through Europe, on tour in Amsterdam, London, Krakow and Warsaw. The film shows the children practising in the rubble of Grozny and performing in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and London's Lyric Theatre.

The images are touching. The children seem to be saying: 'everything around us is in ruins, but we are dancing: we exist'. It becomes clear in the course of the film that these children not only want to dance, but must dance, in order to find a release for their overloaded nervous systems; it truly keeps them from going mad. We see a boy dancing even though his knee has been dislocated. A girl literally collapses during one of the performances.

The group's performing becomes a metaphor for the horror of a daily reality in which these children could disappear from one moment to the next.

Jos de Putter is a widely published journalist and freelance film critic as well as being a multi-award-winning documentarian. Honours include the Prize of the City of Utrecht for best debut film, the Joris Ivens prize at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and the Jury Prize at the Tehran Film Festival.