Buried Alive

The Sinking of the Kursk

Author: Anna Sadovnikova

Length: 50'

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None of us can get to the surface. I am writing blindly", says the desperate message in the farewell note Dmitry Kolesnikov writes to his wife. The 27-year-old Russian Lieutenant-Captain is trapped in the Kursk, the sunken Russian nuclear submarine that lies at the bottom of the Barents Sea. Kolesnikov and his wife married only three months before the catastrophe. Two days before the Kursk put to sea for what was to be her last voyage, the newlyweds made a home video on board the submarine; an unusual and moving declaration of love, in which the young officer proudly shows to his wife his work environment in the flagship of the Russian submarine fleet. Lieutenant Kolesnikov's farewell letter is the only indisputable account to date of the events onboard the Kursk – the Russian government has failed dismally in handling the Kursk disaster. Using film footage partly unpublished as yet and takes from Kolesnikov's home video, this documentary reconstructs the story of the Kursk and her tragic fate, sheds light on Russia's political and military background, illustrates the ghastly condition of the once renowned Northern Fleet and recounts the fates of the unfortunate seamen and their families.

year of production: 2001