Ognisko Kino Klub

20 June | 'Tovarisch' Screening

• Date: Friday, June 20, 2025
• Time: 7p.m. for 7:30p.m. Film

Wanting to know more about his father, Stuart Urban discovered an extraordinary life story. But then his father, Garri Urban, had survived the Holocaust and a Soviet Gulag.

Stuart, a two-time British Academy award winning director, recorded video diaries over 14 years, which reveal the fate of his family in the Holocaust, and Garri’s KGB records. To these video diaries he added extensive 16mm Kodachrome home movies, shot from the 1950s onwards, to create the core of this film.

The title was taken from Garri’s autobiography, published in 1980, when he was shot while attempting to swim across an icy river from Soviet-held territory to Romania. Garri told the snipers who lifted his seemingly lifeless body; “no, tovarisch (comrade), I’m not dead,” then proceeded to strike their officer.

In 1992, once Communism had collapsed, Stuart followed Garri to the former Soviet Union, where Garri tracked down his KGB file in which he was still listed as an “international spy” on the wanted list.

​Stuart continued to search for answers after his father’s death, and rather than being a typical biographical documentary, this films questions the concept of identity. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Stuart Urban.

Please note this film includes disturbing content and language that you may find offensive.