Original subtitles

THE CHRONICLES OF MELANIE

JUNE 17, 1940 - THE SOVIETS INVADES ESTONIA, LATVIA AND LITHUANIA.

A PLANNED EXTERMINATION IS BEGINNING.

JUNE 14, 1941 - MORE THAN 15,000 LATVIANS ARE DEPORTED TO SIBERIA,

INCLUDING CHILDREN AND ELDERLY.

RIGA, LATVIA 1941

Don't move. Do not get dressed.

So, Mr Vanags.

Get dressed!

Melanie, I'll be all right.

Are you Melanie Vanags?

Be ready in 15 minutes. You're coming with us.

Take me and leave my family.

You're the editor-in-chief of a newspaper.

What kind of a husband would leave his family?

Where are you taking us?

Not far. To Ogre.

My wife hasn't done anything.

We'll give this to your neighbours for safekeeping.

Who's that?

- My brother. - Where's the child?

Andrejs.

Are we going to the country?

I already packed my things.

Sonny, have some milk.

- Let's go! - You must go now.

Who knows when you'll get something to eat.

Melanie...

Dear daughter...

Andrejs, come here, you'll be warmer.

Put these on.

Get out. No lingering!

Why are we going to Ogre in cattle cars?

I'll take this.

You can't go with women.

Aleksandrs, your gloves!

You'll be together later on.

Daddy!

Don't get lost! Come with me!

Take the suitcase!

- Is everyone in? - Yes.

No lingering. You'll be together at the other end.

Get in, get in!

Get in! Close it.

Mum, what's wrong?

Sleep.

Get the children. They're your children.

There's no point.

They took our husbands to be shot. It'll be the same with us.

First they killed the fathers and now they're coming for us.

Stop! Where do you think you're going?

Is Ogre soon?

Bless our Latvia. Bless it, we beseech thee.

God, bless Latvia,

Our beloved fatherland.

It's Zilupe. We just crossed the Latvian border.

What are you looking for? Can I help you?

No, go back to sleep.

Mummy, don't! Mummy, don't!

Anna!

What are you doing?

Help! Help!

Help!

Are you finished? Can we go?

If something happens again, we'll take your children away!

We're at war!

The Germans have crossed our border.

Shut the door!

That's it! You have arrived. Get out!

Get up! Daddy is waiting.

We'll be able to wash. At last.

After three...

weeks...

Katrīna.

You too?

Little Kārlis.

He was supposed to be baptized tomorrow.

Our husbands!

This is charcoal, it helps against dysentery.

Mummy! Mummy!

Where are you going?

What's your occupation?

What?

He's asking what you do.

Coiffure, manicure...

Write: "Whore".

Comrade Ampalov, some new material for you.

Why do we have to sign?

That the information you gave is correct.

Wait.

"Voluntary relocation for 20 years."

Why are you giving her a false piece of paper?

I don't understand. Speak in a human language.

It's only for our records.

We won't sign. Don't sign.

We're not forcing you.

If you don't sign, you won't leave this field.

- Where are our husbands? - Yes!

- Where? When will we see them? - You're not allowed to know.

- What were we arrested for? - As if you don't know.

Fascists!

They didn't even tell us that we'd be taken somewhere.

So now you tell us.

Anyone arrested has the right to know the reason for the arrest!

You don't have a legal leg to stand on.

You can do what you want. I won't sign a false piece of paper.

You will sign it. What else can you do?

Look, they've brought the fascists!

That's it, here we are. Get out. And follow me.

And hurry up.

All right, get up!

This is not a retreat.

This is where you'll live and work until palms sprout here.

You'll get 400 grams of bread a day for your work. Is that clear?

Get up, I said! You have to dig a privy pit!

For your own good. Don't just lie there! Up!

Which part was unclear? Get up!

Are you sick?

Her baby's sick.

So she's fine. Get up!

And you, smarty, will drive cattle to the faraway base. Understood?

Let's go!

So little?

200 grams a day.

- Half-baked chaff is not bread. - What?

Do you want bread? Come with me.

If I die...

Leave me here in the taiga.

To spare my son.

Son...

Son...

Show me your drawing.

When is Dad coming?

Andrejs.

Show me.

Pretty girl!

I saw you in my dream.

Eat. Get well.

If there are bones, the meat will follow!

Eat for a week.

And then come to me. Agreed?

You fool! It's your choice.

Rot and die!

What's that?

A letter to Dad.

I just don't know where to send it.

Let's do without the nettles tomorrow.

My hands are all raw.

Pick some goosefoot or whatever else in the meadow.

It's all the same to me, as long as I have something to cook.

Andrejs, I found something.

You fool!

It's poisonous! Do you want to die? You can't eat that, understand?

Use your stupid brain!

Mum, please boil these potatoes for me!

I found them over there on the ground.

Throw them away.

Throw them away!

We're not eating garbage yet.

A roast...

A roast...

So you've dug them all up?

Let's go.

Do you hear that?

Do you hear that?

- For whom? - For Inta.

- For whom? - For Rūsiņš.

- For whom? - For me.

And take this one to Katrīna.

We don't have enough warm clothing like the Russians do.

We don't.

We don't have any potatoes either.

We don't.

How are we going to live?

Not getting any better?

I have no milk at all.

Make us a coffin.

We cannot fulfil your order.

We don't have nails.

Where can we get the nails?

You need a permit from the executive committee.

We'll think of something.

Awfully beautiful.

Will we get out before nightfall?

There's plenty of time.

Where are you off to?

Where are you off to?

Back to work, bitch!

- My child is calling me. - Back to work, bitch!

You crazy! Come here. Come here.

Melanie, get back to work. Back to work.

Finish up! Let's go home.

I'm combing my little doll.

My head is splitting. I'm dying.

This will get the pus out.

Help us!

Dad, help us!

Not only green when summer's here, But also when it's cold and drear.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, Thy leaves are so unchanging.

He's saved!

I'm here about my request to Moscow.

There's nothing.

All right.

There is a reply.

Aleksandrs Vanags.

Sentenced to ten years.

Serving his term in a correctional labour camp.

Without the right of correspondence.

He's alive.

Where is he? At least tell me what region he's in.

The family is not allowed to know that. Do you understand?

Where?

It doesn't say. Do you understand?

Alive.

Alive.

Mummy, if I could get sugar every day, I would die every day.

I don't expect anything from life anymore.

There's only one thing left.

One tiny bit of hope.

To see our homeland.

To raise our son.

And to meet you.

A small corner of life left

with seven mountains of faith

and seven seas

of love.

Victory!

The war is over. The war is over!

Home! We'll finally be able to go home.

Let's go.

Victory

Mum!

The Red Cross...

The Red Cross is gathering children to send them back to Latvia.

Everyone who wants to return.

Even those with living mothers?

All the children will be taken home.

No mothers...

Then you should go.

What if we never see each other again?

- Keep well. - Farewell.

Good afternoon.

Will they go soon?

I don't know.

Will the children be able to go today?

I told you, I don't know.

- You promised! - Did Ampalov forbid?

Yes, it was him. He also warned everyone...

He said he'd punish all the mothers who let their children go.

- Will the children go? - Get lost!

Stop whining! I'll find out.

The children walked for three hours. We came here...

Will we make it to the train? To Krasnoyarsk and the Red Cross...

Stop whining!

What kind of people are you?

Are you brave enough to go alone by train?

We have to make it to the train. Start the car!

I can go.

Then let's not waste time.

If there's a document control, I'll be arrested for fleeing.

Do you remember everything?

Krasnoyarsk, Home for the Deaf and Dumb,

23 Stalin Boulevard, Anna Lūse.

Go.

Go.

Go!

How are you going to live here? It's like a shithouse.

If you can't take it, go home. I'll do it myself.

And your husband will come here...

Yes.

Kārlis?

Help me.

Fascist! A German! Fascist!

Thank you.

After so many years, I am finally happy.

It sounds good. Only the left side is a little dense.

Sheep's blood.

Jakob.

My brother was sentenced to 15 years in a camp.

What does it mean "stacionārā"?

"Stationiert", hospitalized.

Sick.

He's asking for tobacco.

Tobacco is not good for your health.

In camps tobacco is worth more than money.

We no longer accept packages for the North.

It's too late, there is no traffic on the Yenisei.

We can accept it as an air mail parcel.

How much does it cost?

17 roubles a kilo.

I don't have that kind of money.

This parcel may save someone's life.

What's it to me?

Buy my boots.

What will I do with them?

Melanie! Melanie-dummy! Melanie-dummy!

Dummy! Dummy! Barefoot!

Blood.

Grate it with potatoes and eat it.

It'll help you to recover.

I'm pregnant.

I'll die and the baby won't survive either.

Don't doubt yourself.

Did you register with the commandant's office?

Yes.

So because you're German you don't have to work?

I'm sick.

The sick ones are in hospitals.

Getting all cosy here. Parasites!

You'll be a guard at the cattle base. Understood?

I hate to follow and I hate to lead.

To obey? Oh no!

And govern? No, indeed!

Only he who feels no fear will cause no fear.

And only those inspiring fear can lead.

I even hate to lead myself.

Like creatures of the forest and the sea

I love to lose myself for a longer while,

To shelter in a distant, quiet place.

Then lure myself back home from far away,

Being enticed by my own sweet self.

You won't go to work. You're sick.

At night, you must keep on your toes.

The dying sheep should be killed straight away,

so that the meat doesn't go bad.

Please don't die.

Wait until the morning: I'll bring a Kalmyk butcher.

What are you staring at? Go to work!

Children wanted to drown it.

They spoiled my lovely Sunday walk.

A cat in the house brings good luck.

A cat in the house is happiness, Jakob.

Happiness.

At home I used to tie a cat to a board

and pull it up to the top of a pole in the cherry orchard.

That isn't good. You hurt the animals.

- Not good. - In the evening I let them down.

All the birds were gone then.

You have to return to the hospital.

There is no medicine here.

I don't want to go to the hospital, that'll be the end of me.

I feel much better already.

My legs feel very light.

I just can't get warm.

I'll warm you.

His clothes.

We can't put them on anymore.

- What now? - Just lay them on him.

We'll dig a deeper hole in the spring.

When we were building a railway through the taiga,

we buried the dead right there in the embankment.

There were blind horses in the potassium mines.

They were pulling carts with potassium.

The mines were very deep and narrow.

Whoever was sent to these mines was almost certainly sent to death.

The dead were put in one of the barracks, and during the night

they would smash their heads with a big hammer,

put them on a sledge and take them away.

My relatives, who stayed in Riga, were killed in the ghetto.

My only consolation is that in the gas chambers

my parents died quickly.

In comparison to my life in Russian camps.

I came for an answer to my last request.

Sentenced to ten years.

Serving his term in a correctional labour camp.

Without the right of correspondence.

He's alive.

The ten years passed in June.

But you're still talking about his sentence.

I'm reading what's written here.

I...

am...

alone...

but...

never...

lonely.

I...

believe...

in a miracle...

that...

for one...

last...

time...

I'll be able to...

touch...

you.

Beautiful land...

Blue sky...

Nice people all around...

The cat has left the house.

Someone will die.

I searched everywhere to find someone slaughtering a pig or a sheep.

Raw liver is the most nutritious of foods.

A piece of bread and butter. A Russian woman gave it for my birthday.

Your cat turned up.

Your cat came home. Starving.

Don't be afraid of the surgery anymore. Everything will be all right.

Only a blood transfusion will save her.

We don't have any blood, Genrik Solomonovich.

- Krasnoyarsk. - That's 300 kilometres away.

I'll do everything to save you. But you have to help me.

You have to summon all your strength.

And we'll deal with it together. Do you hear me, Melanie?

Open your eyes. Melanie! Open them.

- Melanie, the surgery was successful. - Open your eyes. That's it.

You will live!

Four tumours. Complete blood transfusion.

- This is a miracle. - It's all behind you. Smile.

I'm as happy as never before.

Kārlis is being sent to Kazakhstan.

We're allowed to go with him.

Give him to me.

Open all the doors and windows.

Count to five.

One, two, three, four, five.

Add seconds every day.

Five, seven, ten. Up to a minute.

So that he toughens up.

Then he'll have hope of surviving the long trip.

Melanie! You have a letter from your son.

Already in the army?

In the notebook that you gave me

I'll write the story of Siberia and send it to my son.

So that his children would know.

That we existed.

Aleksandrs Vanags. Born: 1907.

Died: August 3, 1942.

Already in 1942?

Yes.

- Where? - It's not stated here.

Show me.

Take off your boots.

Felt boots are not allowed in the hall.

This is my only footwear.

Go to the director and get his permission.

We have carpets on the floors. You can't walk on them in boots.

Does the opera exist for carpets that cannot be cleaned?

Read our rules for visiting the opera, it's all in there.

Does it say there that art belongs to the people?

You don't remember me?

No.

So what's it like in Siberia?

It snows all the time.

AFTER 16 YEARS, WITH STALIN'S DEATH, MELANIE RETURNED TO LATVIA

AND CONTINUED TO WRITE HER MEMORIES.

THIS MOVIE IS BASED ON HER BOOK:

"SUDDENLY, A CRIMINAL: SIXTEEN YEARS IN SIBERIA",

PUBLISHED FOR THE FIRST TIME WHEN SHE WAS 86, IN 1991.

MELANIE DECEASED AT 92 YEARS OF AGE.