The Trial  The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov

In Russian and Ukrainian with English subtitles

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August 2015, a courtroom in Rostov. A man is peering through the bars of his cage, his eyes reveal that his nerves are about to snap. Today he will be handed down a sentence to which he must submit: 20 years’ imprisonment in Siberia for terrorism. The man is Oleg Sentsov, a film director and Maidan activist born in Simferopol in Crimea, Ukraine. He is charged with leading an anti-Russian terrorist movement and having planned attacks on bridges, power lines and a monument of Lenin during the Russian annexation. Askold Kurov investigates the truth behind this political show trial. 

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Sponsored by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa

“A peek into how the Russian state actually operates (...) leaves you with a shuddering chill” 

–Variety

“Saying that The Trial is bare-boned or that its charges of terrorism are Kafkaesque is like saying that Russian winters are cold” 

–Screen Daily