ФИЛЬМ АНАТ ЗАЛМАНСОН

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After three successful tours in USA and Canada, we are now working on tours # 4+5 this February and March, starting in Florida and open to screenings offersfrom other states!

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ABOUT THE FILM Leningrad, 1970. A group of young Jewish dissidents who were denied exit visas, plot to hijack an empty plane and escape the USSR. It started as a fantasy, Operation Wedding; Under the disguise of a trip to a local family wedding, the "hijackers" 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. 45 years later, filmmaker Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov reveals the compelling story of her parents, leaders of the group, "heroes" in the West but "terrorists" in Russia, even today.

"Watching this film gives us the sense of looking through a magical, miraculous window on a time the likes of which we may never see again. We can, however, experience it through Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov’s powerful, emotional, exhilarating film and come away filled with both satisfaction and hope.."  The Jewish Press     San Diego Jewish World

Director Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov: "I carry both my parents’ names. Growing up, everybody knew about this event, but over the years it started to fade away from the public's collective memory. Though there are many films trying to describe this fascinating story, they only give a short 5 minute description and the only full length films about this event were made in Russia 2010. Those films are calling the group members "terrorists" and they re-write history – false imaginary history, or as my father calls it "documentary fairytales".  I found rare archives, interviewed former KGB key members that claimed that: "There was no problem of Jewish immigration in the USSR. Only about 20 people in the whole USSR were denied exit visa."   (Philipp Boblov, former KGB deputy chairmen) ​ I realized that the faith of public memory is on my shoulders. This is an inspiring story that remind us all that civilians have power and even one person can change history, but would have to be willing to pay the price…"