The film we present below is dedicated to the massacre in the village of Novy Aldy on February 5, 2000. This incident was one of the most terrible and bloody pages of the Russian occupation in Chechnya.

A film about the events of February 5, 2000 in the village of Novy Aldy, Chechnya, where OMON security police from St. Petersburg, Russia, carried out a  “mop-up” operation. Residents of the village say that  after the raid they buried 82 corpses, and the Memorial human rights centre later documented the killing of at least 56 people. No insurgents were among those who were shot – all were civilians: old people, women and children. The operation at Novy Aldy was one of the bloodiest in the history of the Second Russian – Chechen War.

The film is based on documentary video footage taken by residents of Novy Aldy on February 9, 2000, and on interviews with eyewitnesses of the events recorded in January-February 2009 by members of the Memorial Human Rights Centre at the request of the film’s directors.

Direction: Yelena Vilenskaya, Nikolai Rybakov and Yekaterina Sokiryanskaya

Taking part: Natalya Estemirova, Vladimir Kostyushev, Yelena Smirnova and Shakhman Akbulatov

Background commentary: read by Russian actor Alexei Devotchenko

Camera: Akhmed Gisayev

Editing: Sergey Feoktistov

**Special thanks are due to Novy Aldy residents who took part in the filming, together with Oleg Orlov, Svetlana Gannushkina and Tatiana Kasatkina.