Film about Gataev family and Chechen war to be presented at Amsterdam festival

This year, at the international documentary film festival in the Netherlands, the right to present her best ten films was granted to Finnish film director Pirjo Khonkassalo. She brought to the festival a film about the war in Chechnya, where heroes are members of the Gataev Chechen family.

"The film festival is held on November 17-28 in Amsterdam. This is the 23rd annual international film festival of documentary films. According to its tradition, every year to one of film directors is given the right to present his or her ten best films. This year this honour was awarded to Ms Khonkassalo. Her choice includes the 'Three Rooms of Melancholia' - about the war in Chechnya and the fate of the Gataev family, who saved children during the war," Oksana Chelysheva, Deputy Head of the Finnish Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship and friend of the Gataevs and Khonkassalo, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In 1997, the Gataev spouses established a non-profit organization in Grozny, named "Own Family", which took care about the Chechen children who lost their parents. Later, Malik and Khadizhat Gataev moved, together with their own children and ten adopted orphans, to Lithuania, where they were sentenced to prison terms, including for cruel treatment of their children. The spouses, who now live in Finland, argue that they were sentenced on forged charges.

See earlier reports: "So far, Gataevs' children will stay in Lithuania", "Lithuania to make public show of film about Gataevs", "Chelysheva: police has fabricated links between Egle Kusaite, Magmadovs and Gataevs".