263 Nights 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, 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).
Festivals, Screenings, & Awards
Miami Jewish Film Festival
Moscow Jewish Film Festival
Ann Arbor Jewish Film Festival
Year
2021
Production Country
Belarus
Production Company
Vladimir Bokun Studio
Distribution
Documentary
Subject Region
Belarus, Soviet Union
Runtime
27 minutes
Director
Vladimir Lutsky (documentary) Irina Tarasova (animation)
Producer
Vladimir Bokun
Writer
Boris Gersten
Assistant Director
Irina Vasilyeva
Director of Photography
Maxim Kurovsky
Sound Engineer
Innokenty Sichkar
Lighting Technician
Dmitry Reshetov
Editing
Ilya Svirin
Sound Design
Maxim Volodin
Editing and Graphics
Alexey Turanov