On the 5th anniversary of the terrorist attack in Moscow, the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and other NGO´s and cultural institutions worldwide have prepared screenings of Andrej Niekrasow´s film “Disbelief”, combined with public debates on the topic of the attack´s influence on the war in the Chechen Republic. (03-SEP-04)

A fatal bomb blast in a Moscow apartment building ignites a fury of questions about terrorism, shadow politics, and post-Soviet intrigue in “Disbelief”; a film as much about the high art of political deception as it is about violence and human tragedy.

Moral pretext for war
Niekrasow´s documentary film is devoted to the terrorist attack of September 9, 1999, during which the residents of the 9-story apartment building in Moscow lost their lives. It was quickly blamed on Chechen terrorists. But was it their crime?

The attacks of 1999 became a moral pretext for the second Chechen war. “Disbelief” states the question about the perpetrators of this attack and about its consequences, both for particular people, as well as the whole of the Russian Federation. These questions have been actualized in light of the recent events in Ossetia.

Worldwide screenings and debates
Screenings of the film, combined with a public debate, are being prepared throughout the world, i.e. in Berlin, Washington, Moscow, Copenhagen, and Lugano, in connection with the fifth anniversary, which falls on September 9. In Poland, apart from Warsaw, screenings of the film are also being organised in Poznañ, Lublin, Wroc³aw, Krakow and Czêstochowa.

Russia´s future
As a result of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights initiative, panel discussion on the subject of “The War in the Chechen Republic and Russia´s Future” will take place after the screening in Warsaw. Professor Andrzej Paczkowski from he Helsinki Committee will be its moderator. The following people have confirmed their participation: Polish Sejm member Mariusz Kamiñski, The Representative of the Chechen Parliament´s Plenipotentiary in Europe Akhjat Idigow, dr hab. W³odzimierz Marciniak from the Polish Academy of Sciences, the film´s director Andrej Niekrasow, editor Ihar Bialiayeu from the Russian Television Station NTV, as well as Wladimir Blinkow from the Russian “Arguments and Facts”.

Read about the film and its creators on the websites www.disbelief-film.com and www.dreamscanner.com