Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Dnieper and Launching the Stenin Exhibition
TDS
31 October 2023
‘Only ‘Old Men’ Are Going into Battle’, a Soviet-era movie dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Dnieper and the liberation of the Left-bank Ukraine from Nazis was screened during this month’s Russian Movie Night event.
The film was directed by Leonid Bykov, who also stars as Captain "Maestro" Titarenko, the leader of a Red Army squadron of fighter planes doing battle against the Germans in Ukraine in 1943. Captain Titarenko is a devoted fan of music, and his squadron moonlights as a band of musicians when they aren't fighting the Germans.
Introducing the movie to guests, Ambassador Ilya Rogachev of Russia to South Africa said, “Essentially, the film is based on true events of the Great Patriotic War which took place in different aviation units of the Soviet Air Force. The director used the method of artistic synthesis, bringing those events together in one movie.”
Ambassador Rogachev also noted the current day attempts by some to rewrite history. In present-day Ukraine the Battle of the Dnieper is being turned into an anti-Russian myth which has nothing to do with real history, he said. “Victory over Nazis in the Battle of the Dnieper was achieved as the movie proves, by the joint efforts of the peoples of the Soviet Union - Ukrainians, Russians, Uzbeks, Moldovans, Georgians and others,” the Ambassador emphasized.
This iconic movie has contributed many phrases and lessons to everyday lives. It is a war movie that incorporates friendship, music and a love story.
Stenin Photo Contest Exhibition
The evening also included the launch of the Stenin Photo contest exhibition. Andrei Stenin, a famous Russian photographer, was killed on editorial assignment in Ukraine and the contest which was launched in 2014 in his honour, aims to discover young talented photographers from around the world. This year saw more than 3,000 participants from 54 countries around the globe enter the contest.
The photographs exhibited this year were poignant and many reflected the world as it is today. South African photographers were among the winners from 2017 to 2020 and Ambassador Rogachev encouraged young South Africans to participate in the contest which celebrates its tenth anniversary next year. The contest opens on 22 December every year, which marks Stenin’s birthday.