Olympus Inferno

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Movie
German title Olympus Inferno
Original title Олимпиус Инферно
(Olimpius Inferno)
Country of production Russia
original language Russian
Publishing year 2009
length 85 minutes
Rod
Director Igor Voloshin
production Stanislaw Dowschik , Alexei Kublizki , Leonid Petrow
occupation

Olympus Inferno ( Russian Олимпиус Инферно , Olimpius Inferno ) is a Russian feature film from 2009, which deals with the events of the Caucasus War in 2008 from a Russian or Ossetian perspective.

action

Michael Orraya ( Henry David ) is a young American entomologist who plans to travel to the controversial region of South Ossetia in Georgia to study the insects found there. Orraya spent his childhood in Russia, which is why he speaks fluent Russian. Before his trip, he contacted Shenya ( Polina Filonenko ), an old school friend who is now a journalist in Moscow . The two decide to meet again after a long time and travel together to South Ossetia.

When they arrive in South Ossetia, they are picked up by Achsar, their tour guide, in whose house they are also supposed to live. Schenja and Michael notice a strange mood in Achsar's home village. Georgian residents are leaving the area and the two feel that something bad is about to happen. However, the other Ossetian villagers do not take this seriously and continue to live as before. Even after a strange televised address by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili , they take no action. On the evening of August 7, 2008, Michael and Schenja drive to a nearby biotope to examine insects.

When they were still checking the area for insects during the night, the 2008 Caucasus War began and Georgia launched an offensive on its breakaway province of South Ossetia. Michael and Shenya run into the arms of Georgian troops and are captured by them. They are initially mistaken for Russian spies. Since Michael is a US citizen, Georgian troops want to take him to the US embassy in Tbilisi . When he says that Shenya is his fiancée, the Georgians let her too.

While Michael and Shenya are waiting in a Georgian military camp for their removal, they decide to flee at an opportune moment. In a military barracks in the Georgian camp, they found a hard drive with video footage of the Georgian invasion that they took with them. Schenja and Michael want to flee to Tskhinval , where the Russian peacekeeping forces are stationed.

On their way there, they meet a US war correspondent. In a report for US television, the latter stated that it was an invasion of Georgia by South Ossetian separatists and the Russian army. Schenja and Michael are outraged.

When they arrived in Tskhinvali, they witnessed fierce fighting between Georgians and the inferior and poorly equipped South Ossetian militia. Shenya is seriously injured. Eventually, however, Russian troops reach South Ossetia, support the Ossetians and drive out the Georgian army. Shenya receives medical care from Russian military doctors.

A few days later, Michael is back in the USA and is supposed to report on a live broadcast as an eyewitness about the Russian attack on Georgia. When Michael declares that it is in fact a Georgian attack on South Ossetia and that he has evidence of this, he is not believed. He leaves the show indignantly in front of the camera.

At the end of the film Michael is back in a Russian hospital with Schenja and the two hug.

criticism

The film received mostly average ratings. On IMDb Olympus Inferno received a rating of 4.9 out of 10 points, on the website RUSkino 5.9 out of 10 points. Radio Liberty described the film as anti-Western and anti-Georgian, but pointed out that propaganda films about the Caucasus War had also been made by Georgians. Spiegel Online called Olympus Inferno part of a propaganda battle between Russia and Georgia. The director Igor Voloshin pointed out that the European Union has now also recognized that Georgia has started the conflict. Olympus Inferno was awarded the Russian TEFI Prize in 2009.

Trivia

The model for the final sequence, in which Michael leaves the show in front of the camera, was a live interview on the Caucasus War broadcast on Fox News in 2008 . The then 12-year-old American of Ossetian descent, Amanda Kokoeva, was staying with relatives in South Ossetia at the time of the war. During the interview, she described Georgia as the attacker and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as responsible for the escalation of the conflict. The presenter Shepard Smith then tried to silence the girl, after which the interview was interrupted and advertisements were broadcast.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://ruskino.ru/mov/12167
  2. ↑ http://www.rferl.org/content/New_Russian_Film_Pushes_Kremlins_Line_On_Georgia_War/1516643.html
  3. ^ A b Moritz Gathmann: Russian action film: Propaganda battle at prime time. In: Spiegel Online . March 29, 2009, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Как Лора Тадеева-Коревиск. In: censor.net.ua. August 18, 2008, accessed May 2, 2020 (Russian).