Koma

It's the early 1950s, the height of mass repression in the Soviet Union. In the ice-cold north of Russia, Maria lives in a women's labor camp, more widely known as a Gulag. She was arrested after reading a poem by the reactionary poet Tsvetaeva at a student party. In this inhumane place, she will not only have to endure many forms of violation, but will also eventually have to choose between her child and the man she loves. If a poem could land a regular girl in jail, tomorrow it could be anyone. Filmmakers Nijole Adomenaite and Boris Gorlov subtly hint at the fact that what looks like an extreme was actually a very real possibility for every person living during Soviet times. The harsh reality of the Stalinist labor camps is depicted without embellishment to drive the point home. Full of the horrors that were inherent in the era of Stalinism, Koma shows the effects of this regime on the people living under it. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)