Filmmaker Statement

In Russia an estimated 5,000 women die each year at the hands of their romantic partners. Every few weeks, a horrible article breaks through the media frenzy about yet another woman killed at the hands of her partner. These victims are sometimes killed in front of their children, sometimes their limbs are cut off, and occasionally their remains are thrown into rivers. I’ve been reading this kind of news every few weeks, year after year. This enrages me to my core. How is it possible that there are no significant systems in place to support women in these situations?! How is it that the police respond to a call from a desperate victim with the words, “we’ll come when there is a corpse”? How is this possible? We cannot allow this to continue. Russia is not the only country where domestic abuse is a serious problem. But unlike other countries, the Russian government made the decision to ignore this problem by DECRIMINALIZING domestic abuse in 2017. The fine for beating ones partner is now equivalent to a fine for driving through a red light. Once again, I ask myself, how is this possible? This socially accepted violence towards women within its own society also, to some degree, begins to explain the horrible crimes being perpetrated now against women and children in Ukraine.