Documentary film “The Forest”. Based on the real events that took place in the Chonkauski forest near Gomel

The documentary “The Forest” shows several real stories from the 1930s about Stalin's repressions. One of them is about a Gomel official who survived a shooting in the sadly famous Navabelicki (Chonkauski) forest near Gomel.

According to archaeological excavations in 1995, Soviet citizens were shot by NKVD officers in this forest.

In 2021, the 52nd search battalion of the Ministry of Defense began new excavations in this forest. According to the official version, the remains of Nazi victims of World War II are in the forest. Prosecutor General of Belarus A. Shved said that the remains of several tens of thousands to a hundred thousand civilians could be in the forest.

The film “The Forest” is an investigation of its authors with evidence of the crimes of the Soviet regime. The documentary utilizes archival video and audio in which witnesses recount the events of the 1930s.

3D reconstruction of a comb case, which was discovered during archaeological excavations in Navabelicki forest in 1995. The reconstruction was made according to the drawings of archaeologist Aliaksandar Shtemenka. On the case the execution victim left the year of arrest — 1937.

Film Director: Maryia Bulavinskaya

Maryia Bulavinskaya was born in Gomel on July 27, 1989. Master of Historical Sciences. Since 2014 to 2022, she has been working as a documentary journalist for the independent Polish-Belarusian television Belsat. From 2020 to 2023, she was an investigative journalism. In 2022, she graduated from the Ukrainian Film School (Kyiv) with a degree in feature film directing.

Director of Photography: Valiantsin Hlushko




The author of illustrations and animation: Street Wind

The process of filming the documentary

A team representative receives a prize at the "Altın Safran Belgesel Film Festivali"

Producers
MARYIA BULAVINSKAYA
EVGEN
LEANID KALITSENIA

Production Designer
MK

Props Master
MIKHAIL KANDRACIENKA

Casting Director/Assistant Director
DZIANIS 368

Sound Director
ANASTASIYA PIATSEVICH

Makeup Artist
DARDASH

Costume designer/stylist
NASTA RABUSHKA

1ac/ focuspuller
MAKSYM DOROSHENKO

Bestboy
YAUHENI HLUSHAN

Gaffer
ANDREI OVSIANNIKOV

Consultant
Amanda Feldon

Actors
Oleg Garbuz
Maksym Shyshko
Andrei Novik
Sviatlana Zeliankouskaya
Nikita Khvaliuk
Aliaksej Burnosenka
Denis Novikov
Andrei Drobysh
Yauheni Basalai
Alena Bayarava