The Illuzion cinema in Moscow hosted the premiere screening of the documentary Hunting the Hares, dedicated to the legendary and tragic escape of Soviet prisoners of war from the Mauthausen concentration camp in February 1945. Combining archival footage, historians’ testimony, and dramatic reenactments, the film immerses viewers in the events when nearly five hundred doomed prisoners, through extraordinary effort, broke through the barbed wire—only to face a brutal manhunt launched by the military and local residents.

The evening opened with remarks by Maria Matveeva, Director of the Sochi Dialogue. In her welcome speech, she read greetings from Andrey Fursenko, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation and Co-Chair of the Sochi Dialogue, as well as from Alexey Fursin, Head of the Moscow Department of Culture.
The Assistant to the President emphasized the importance of such projects for preserving historical truth and fostering dialogue between nations:

“It is essential that work with historical memory is not episodic. It must be systematic, consistent, and honest. This film is part of such systemic work by the Sochi Dialogue, aimed at ensuring that the difficult pages of our shared history become not a barrier but a foundation for mutual understanding.”

Igor Nikitin, Deputy Director of the Third European Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, read a welcoming address from Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Lyubinsky, emphasizing the film’s particular importance in the context of contemporary memory politics.

During the event, Ilya Vasilyev, Chairman of the Alexander Pechersky Foundation, also spoke about the foundation’s broader efforts to preserve historical memory.
“Our foundation has already carried out substantial research work, which will result in the publication of a collected volume on the Mauthausen uprising,” he noted. Vasilyev added that the foundation is implementing other initiatives aimed at commemorating the heroes of the “Battle of Mauthausen” and continues the search for descendants of the camp’s prisoners.

We believe that Hunting the Hares is more than a documentary chronicle. It is a comprehensive historical study that brings back the names of heroes long consigned to oblivion, reveals the complexity and ambiguity of those events, and reminds us that the memory of war is not only a tribute to the fallen but a moral lesson for the future.
Before the official speeches began, guests were shown a teaser for the film, accompanied by an original composition by Egor Yakovlev, which conveys through music the depth of emotion and the resilience of the film’s protagonists.

Organized jointly by the Alexander Pechersky Foundation, the Sochi Dialogue, and Digital History, this evening became yet another step in our shared work. Each film of this kind, each story we preserve, becomes not only a tribute to memory but a bridge to the future, built on the foundation of historical truth.

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