The North American premiere of the newly-discovered 1966 Soviet film, Eastern Corridor, which captures the all-encompassing horror of the war in Nazi-occupied Belarus, where Germans, ghetto Jews, the Communist underground, and partisans are pitted against each other in a web of paranoia and violence. A forgotten gem of Soviet poetic cinema, filmed in stark expressionistic style, Eastern Corridor is remarkable for its honest depiction of the complex and contradictory reality of wartime Belarus. It is also the rare Soviet film that makes the events of the Holocaust central to the plot, culminating with the tragic scene of the execution of Jews in Minsk ghetto.

With its Holocaust scenes shot with unparalleled force and artistic vision, Eastern Corridor should have occupied a major place in the international Holocaust filmography. Instead, it was silenced upon its release, and became a cinematic phantom. This screening—which is a US premiere—is an attempt to save this astonishing tour de force from oblivion and restore it to the cinematic history of the Holocaust.

Olga Gershenson is Professor of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is also on the Film Studies faculty. Professor Gershenson earned her BA in Russia, her MA in Israel, and her PhD in the US. Her academic path is as diverse. A multi-disciplinary scholar, her interests lie at the intersection of culture, history, and film. Her first book, Gesher: Russian Theater in Israel (2005), pioneered the study of Russian immigrant cultural production. A series of articles on Russian-Israeli cinema cemented her status as the premier expert in the field. Gershenson’s latest book, The Phantom Holocaust (2013), reveals unknown Holocaust films from the Soviet Union. According to the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies, it “will serve as a foundation for all further research and reflection on the topic." In her most recent work, she looks at Jewish museums in post-communist Europe, examining the relationship between space, politics, history, and culture. Profiled in Haaretz as the rare academic who “prefers engaging the masses in culture,” she curates film series, consults for festivals, and has a lively lecture schedule at universities, conferences, and museums around the world.

Film will be in Russian with English sub-titles.

Special thanks to Belarusfilm.