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Дурмишхан

Durmishkhan

  • 12 min
  • Ossetian, Georgian
  • Russian
The village of Avnevi was one of the largest Georgian enclaves in South Ossetia. After the war, when all the Georgians left, the Ossetians burned Georgian houses so that the Georgians would not return. There are only two houses left in Avnevi. Durmishkhan lives in one of them. Now he is 78 years old. Durmishkhan is Georgian, his late wife Zalina was Ossetian. Their son was killed by his comrade because of the girl, but during the war it turned out to be very easy to do, because human life was completely devalued. Both of their daughters left for Georgia in 1992, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren were born there. Durmishkhan never saw them. Only two years ago, when Zalina was dying of cancer, her daughters illegally crossed the border to see their parents. A day and a half later, Ossetian border guards appeared on the threshold, one of the neighbors reported. The daughters were taken back across the border. Zalina died two days later. Durmishkhan does not have a passport and has never left Avnevi. It seems to him that he will never be able to go to his daughters in Georgia, he is afraid that his former Georgian fellow villagers will recognize him and kill him as a traitor. And why go, he says, Zalina, with whom he grew up together and whom he loved since childhood, died, and all that he had left was her grave and the grave of their son. The film was shot as part of the War|Peace project dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the August 2008 war.