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| A scene from The Border. |
Over theirs
By John Esther
On August 30, 1946 the town of Velke Siemence was divided by Russia's Red Army. On one side was Velke Siemence, which remained in former Czechoslovakia/current Slovakia. The other part was set in a part of the Ukraine (formerly a part of the Soviet Union) and called Male Siemence.
All of a sudden and without warning, family and friends were divided by an armed border. If you wanted to walk a few feet in one direction to visit family or friends you would have to travel hours in another direction, often multiple times, in order to acquire the proper papers. If you spoke out against the border your living space would become a lot smaller in some far away place.
Slovakia's entry for Best Foreign Language Film, this documentary chronicles the history of the divide up until the present where it has once again become unified, but at what cost?
Maybe it was just a bad day, but I had a hard time staying awake for The Border's running time of 72 minutes.
(The Border screens, Jan. 8, 11:00 a.m., Camelot Theatres; Jan. 10, 8 p.m., Camelot Theatres. For more information: http://www.psfilmfest.org)
