Sobibor is a film by the Russian actor and director Konstantin Khabensky about the escape of prisoners from the concentration camp during the Second World War. It was shown at the Russian Spiritual and Cultural Center in Paris. The film was created with the participation of the Russian Military Historical Society.
Earlier the film has been presented at the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Then Sobibor was presented to the international audience as a part of the 71st International Cannes Film Festival.
Representatives of French public organizations, members of veterans’ associations, members of the scientific community, historians, and journalists also came to see the film in Paris.
As noted the Russian Ambassador in France, Alexei Meshkov, “first of all, this film is about the strength of the man’s spirit, it tells about the feat accomplished by the Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky, who raised the revolt in the concentration camp”.
Mr. Meshkov also stated, “The film is very important for all of us because nowadays literally in hundreds of kilometers from the place, where Sobibor was located, people praise the Nazis once again, and the animal anti-Semitism is rising. This film is extremely important for the education of the younger generation in terms of explaining how terrible and inhuman that war really was. It also speaks about the heroism that was manifested by people of all nationalities in the fight against Nazism”.
The Sobibor Concentration Camp operated from May 1942 to October 1943. During this time, up to 250 thousand Jews from various European countries were killed there. The camp ceased to exist after the uprising, which was led by Lieutenant Pechersky in 1943. This uprising was the first successful one for the war period - nearly 300 prisoners managed to escape.
The author of the idea of the film "Sobibor" is the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Chairman of the Russian Military Historical Society (RMHS), Vladimir Medinsky. Konstantin Khabensky is the director and the performer of the main role. The script was written by the Advisor to the Chairman of the RMHS, Andrei Nazarov.
Actors and filmmakers from Russia, Lithuania, France, Germany, and Poland participated in the production process of the film. The movie itself was filmed in five languages: Russian, Polish, German, Dutch, and Yiddish.
The world premiere of "Sobibor" was held on April 23rd in Warsaw. For the first film screening on April 24th organizers chose the home city of Lieutenant Pechersky – city of Rostov-on-Don. Sobibor’s film screenings also took place in Washington, in the UN building in New York, in the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and in the European Parliament in Brussels. The film was released in Russia on May 3 rd.