Operation Wedding: online screening + Q&A with Sylva Zalmanson
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על הסרט
ABOUT THE FILM OPERATION WEDDING
"It is not a just-the-facts documentary, as it wears its heart on its sleeve, and the emotional pull will leave the audience breathless." — Bobby LePire, Film Threat
Leningrad, 1970. A group of young Soviet Jews who were denied exit visas, plots to “hijack” an empty plane and escape the USSR.
It started as a fantasy, Operation Wedding, as outrageous as it was simple: Under the disguise of a trip to a local family wedding, the group members would buy every ticket on a small 12-seater plane, so there would be no passengers but them, no innocents in harm’s way. The group’s pilot would take over the controls and fly the 16 runaways into the sky, over the Soviet border, on to Sweden, bound for Israel.
Caught by the KGB a few steps from boarding, they were sentenced to years in the gulag and two were sentenced to death; they never got on a plane.
Operation Wedding is a documentary film about the Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair, an escape attempt from the Soviet Union by a group of young Soviet, mostly Jewish, who were denied exit visas. The documentary is told from a personal point of view of the filmmaker, Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov, daughter of group members: Edward Kuznetsov and Sylva Zalmanson.
Available in Hebrew or Russian or English or Spanish subtitles
Register for the discussion and receive a link to watch the film FREE for 3 days before the event or the day after.
Screening link will be EMAILED closer to event date, along with a link to the March 21st webinar.
This panel will be moderated by Masha Merkulova, Founder & Executive Director, Club Z.
Guests include:
-Sylva Zalmanson, Refusenik
-Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov, Filmmaker
-Shlomi Kofman, Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest
-Danny Grossman, CEO, San Francisco Jewish Federation
AWARDS:
Documentary of the month – Danish Film Institute / Copenhagen, Denmark, February 2018
Best Documentary, Audience Choice – Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema / Chicago, USA 2017
Best Feature Documentary – International Filmmaker Festival of NY / New York, NY, USA 2018
Best Writing – History Film Festival / Croatia 2018
Young Jury award for Best Documentary - The Rasnov Histories and Film Festival / Romania 2018
Important Documentary About a Socially Relevant Topic, Semi-Final - “Award This” Film Threat / Los Angeles, USA 2019
Opening film - Jewish Film & Culture Festival / Saarbrücken, Germany 2018
Semi-Finalist - Courage Film Festival / Berlin, Germany 2019
Award of Excellence - Cinema World Fest Awards Winter / Ottawa, Canada 2018
Best Feature Film - Ogeechee International History Film Festival / Georgia, USA 2018
Best Documentary - Mindie, Miami Independent Film Festival / Florida, USA 2018
Semi Final – Hollywood Screenings Film Festival / California, USA 2018
Silver award - World Human Rights Awards / Indonesia 2018
Jury Award for February Best Documentary - Eurasia International Film Festival / Moscow, Russia 2018
Semi Final – Tribute Film Festival / Texas, USA 2018
Semi Final – Gold Movie Awards / London, UK 2018
Audience Choice Award - Tirana International Documentary Film Festival / Tirana, Albania 2017
Globe Award - Around Film Festival / Berlin, Germany 2017
Merit Award - International Film Festival Spirituality Religion and Visionary / Bali Indonesia 2017
Opening film - Israel Film Days / Riga, Latvia 2017
Award of Recognition - Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards / California, USA 2016