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Chechen rebels beheaded 19-year-old border guard Yevgeni Radionov in 1996. Gradually, he turns into a new saint, but the Russian church is not convinced of his martyr’s death.

In 1996, Chechen rebels captured the Russian border guard Yevgeni Radionov. He refused to convert to Islam and was decapitated. In subsequent years, Radionov literally and figuratively turned into an icon in Russia. His grave, which also lodges his untimely deceased brother and father, draws a stream of visitors, all with different motives. In the meantime, people try to get him canonised. The Russian-orthodox church, however, is not convinced Yevgeni died a martyr’s death for his faith.
De nieuwe heilige is both a portrait of the 19-year-old soldier and his mother, who frantically looked for her son for nine months. She gives her sad account by the family grave to throngs of visitors, like war veterans and Russian Hells Angels. She also appears in archive footage of Russian television. This is crosscut with images of the cadet school where children of deceased Russian soldiers are trained. Meanwhile, a woman makes a gilded icon of Radionov: a soldier with a Kalashnikov as a new saint.




Credits

Producer
Set geluid
Sound editing
Muziek
Het Paleis van Boem
Production company
Volya Films

Title: De nieuwe heilige
Year: 2010
Duration : 1 hour, 10 minutes
Category: Long Documentary
Edition: NFF 2011

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Stills

Still