This Saturday will be the opening night for the Ukrainian movie “Haytarma” by Ahtem Seitablaev dedicated to 70th anniversary of Crimean tatar deportation, the TSN reports. This is the first movie on the forced deportation of Crimean Tatars introducing this tragical date of May 18 to general audience.
Story of Mr. Ahmetkhan Sultan, twice the Hero of the Soviet Union, is the golden thread of the plot. He leaves for a vacation to his native town of Alupka in May 1944 after Sevastopol is released from the German occupation, and becomes an eyewitness of the whole people’s deportation. The director played the main character himself.
“Every Crimean Tatar child has heard about the main character of the movie since early years. So, of course, I wanted to play this role as an actor. he really released Crimea and took part in the battle for Sevastopol — only to witness of his family and his people being deported,” — Mr. Seitablaev says.
“Haytarma” has been filmed for 23 days. A lot of people came from all over Crimea to take part in the crowd shots. Many of the elderly people witnessed those events on their own, so they wanted to take part in a movie showing that horror and that pain they suffered. They brought their grandchildren with them and were eager to be filmed for 7 hours in a row standing under acting rain simulator, and no one could convince them to have some rest.
It’s notable that “Haytarma” received a prestigious Russian movie award “Nika” right after the annexation of Crimea, though only a year passed after Mr. Vladimir Andreev, Russian Consul General, accused this movie of misrepresentation of World War II and de facto justified the deportation.
