29/10/2024 - The documentary directed by Askold Kurov and Anonymous1 goes behind the closed doors of Russian newsrooms affected by repressive laws

Some documentaries centre on captivating protagonists facing extraordinary circumstances, while others point a new light on a common situation, showing it from a new perspective. Others yet offer access into a place or society on the verge of disaster. This is the case of Askold Kurov and Anonymous1’s Of Caravan of Dogs, which competed in the Central and Eastern European Competition at the 31st Astra Film Festival (20-27 October). The documentary presents goes behind the scenes of newsrooms of various anti-Putin media and NGOs as Russia strengthens its grip on freedom of speech and prepares for its Ukrainian invasion.

It is always tragic when a film must conceal part of its team or production companies so that the people involved do not suffer consequences from their native authoritarian countries. One year ago, Vlad Petri’s excellent documentary Between Revolutions [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vlad Petri
film profile] didn’t make public the name of the Iranian production company that provided amazing videos from the Iranian Revolution, and now, one of the directors of Of Caravan and the Dogs is only mentioned under the pseudonym Anonymous1. And yet, it is the only solution, as the documentary informs its audience on the outrageous financial and legal complications a Russian journalist or NGO faces just for trying to tell a truth that would make the Kremlin uncomfortable.

The film’s title is a play on an ancient saying popular in many Slavic or Balkan countries (including Romania, where this reviewer hails from), namely that “the caravan passes by, no matter how hard the dogs bark”. In this context, this relates to Vladimir Putin’s immense power and the rather inefficient opposition of independent media. But what if dogs can’t even bark anymore? The freedom of Russian mass media was relative at best, but a string of laws promulgated over the last decade have tried to muzzle it completely. At the beginning of the documentary, we see Putin telling Dmitry Muratov, the editor in chief of the now-closed newspaper Novaya Gazeta and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, that these laws shouldn’t affect journalists. Of course, the dictator is lying through his teeth.

“People shouldn’t be heroes just by telling the truth,” one of the protagonists bitterly muses as he hurries to the airport to flee a country where words are nothing more than a shortcut to a prison sentence. And fleeing is not a coward’s move here: the fight may have become impossible in Russia, but it is still possible abroad, where words can be used freely. For a journalist writing from a country with a perfectible but still functional democracy, the events presented in the documentary are closer to a terror-inducing dystopia than reality. And yet, everything we see on the screen is factual, has happened and already had consequences, as thousands of journalists and activists have already been labeled as “foreign agents” by the Russian legal system.

The access the documentary has into the lives of these heroes is utterly amazing. The viewer is practically among these men and women, who want to observe the principles of journalism but soon discover that Russian authorities have great power over how the truth can be said, and turn it into something else. We see them trying to cope with their harsh reality and looking for solutions to better serve their audience in a context where journalism looks closer to fiction than reality. At some point, the film presents an article about the war in Ukraine redacted by the new laws: half of it is highlighted in bright red and will be re-written, otherwise both the journalist and the publication will suffer consequences.

Of Caravan and the Dogs is a must-see documentary for everyone taking their freedom of speech for granted. It is a German production by Anonymous Production and Novaya Gazeta Europe.