Film Studio Under Fire

A film about the work of the Leningrad Joint Studio for Scientific, Technical and Documentary Films during the Siege of Leningrad.

The studio, which is best known as Lennauchfilm, is more than 80 years old now. It is one of the oldest film studios in Russia.

The feat of its employees has captured the history of the siege of Leningrad and helped to preserve evidences of the most terrible tragedy in the history of wars. More than 50 thousand meters of newsreel do not need dating. These shots were one of the main evidences at the “Trial of Nations” in Nuremberg, becoming indisputable exposure of the crimes of the fascist regime against humanity. This footage has been used in dozens of films and television programs.

But how much do we really know of the people which stood behind the camera? Who were these people which froze to the lenses of movie cameras, burned their hands and eyelashes in fires, carried filming equipment suffering from hunger, walked tens of kilometers through a besieged city? Who, how and where, in the absence of electricity and running water, processed the film footage, glued, edited, voiced films, creating a visible image of history?

Production: Russia, 2023
Duration: 70 min.
Director: Ludmila Shakht