documentary play playwright, director Berlin, April 2023 / Tbilisi, July 2023
Vilnius / Warsaw, March 2024
Director — Anastasia Patlay
Authors of the Play — Nana Grintstein & Anastasia Patlay
Festivals: Echo of Lyubimovka (Granada, 2023),
Most.Svideteli (Yerevan, 2023)
Languages: Russian, translated into English und Japanese
The documentary play Discrediting reveals one of the cases of political persecution based on denunciations in Russia nowadays. The main character of the play, a professor at one of the Russian universities, spoke out against the Russian war in Ukraine on social media in the spring of 2022. Her statement was followed by several denunciations, a “comradely court” at the university, dismissal for “immoral behavior”, threats of criminal prosecution, and, in the end, a trial under the article on “discrediting the army”. Her friends and former colleagues turned away from her, except for a few. In 2022, the state and society literally declared her an “enemy of the people”, resorting to the wording from the period of Stalinist repressions in the 1930s. Even so, the protagonist hasn’t changed her opinion nor regrets what she did. However, her life is ruined. The play is based on an interview with Lyubov Andreevna, several former students who supported her during the persecution and trials (there are citizens of Ukraine among them), and court materials.This story tells about real, not made up by Russian authorities, discrediting — of neighborly relations, Russians as neighbors, and Russia as such.The work on the play “Discrediting” was carried out by the Russian team for the Sąsiedzi.Сусіди.Суседзі.Соседи. project from October 2022 to March 2023.