263 Nights — Claims Conference Film Grants

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263 Nights is the actual story of the 26 prisoners of the Minsk ghetto who have voluntarily confined themselves in the basement, short on food and water — and waited for the Red Army to arrive. They have spent the terrible 263 days and nights there. The youngest son of the stove maker Pinchus Dobin, who built that heaven-sent and hell-bent basement, is still alive.

Synopsis

It seemed that the Minsk ghetto was completely destroyed. But putting a check mark in the appropriate box, the punishers did not know that people continue to live on its territory. Several families hid in the basement of a house on Sukhoi Street. There, underground, in the rat-infested darkness, they spent 263 days and nights — until the liberation of Minsk.

Another miracle of salvation occurred in Krupki — a small town where the Nazis killed almost 2 thousand Jews. One woman managed to escape from certain death three times. Thanks to this, her son was born, who can now share this incredible story with us. The film allows you to see the dramatic events of the war not only through the memories of eyewitnesses, but also through the eyes of modern children. It’s like building a connection between generations, restoring a thread of memory. After all, as one of the young heroes said, a person lives as long as someone remembers him

About the Director

Vladimir Lutsky

Vladimir Lutsky is the director of the Countdown project, the Chronicle of the Minsk Ghetto trilogy. In 2014, for the film Chronicle of the Minsk Ghetto, he received the main prize of the International Festival of Historical and Military Cinema in Warsaw, the winner of the National Television competition Televershina, and the nomination Best Documentary. He was the winner of the TEFI award and the winner of the Televershina and nominated for Best Director (2015).