The language of cinema is familiar and clear to everyone. The International Human Rights Festival ‘Stalker’ in Moscow has long been a highly valued opportunity for the United Nations family in Russia and its individual agencies to talk in this language about human rights to a very wide audience.

The longstanding collaboration between United Nations in the Russian Federation with organisers and partners of the festival has proven its worth and was continued in 2010.

‘Stalker’ was held in Moscow for the 16th time this year. Traditionally starting on 10 December - Human Rights Day, it attracts young and old to review mostly non-commercial movies and documentaries made by Russian and international film-makers with a focus on human dignity, citizen’s basic rights and freedoms. The 5-day festival is organized by the Guild of Russian Filmmakers and co-sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Culture, UN agencies and other international donors. In 2010, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations Development Programme, and United Nations Population Fund supported the ‘UN Day’ on 12 December.

The programme of the ‘UN Day’, dedicated to the theme of this year’s Human Rights Day, ‘Speak up! Stop discrimination’, included four feature and 16 documentary films. The same as in the previous years, we have selected those that put into the limelight various aspects of human rights – related to women, children, persons with disabilities, people living with HIV and others.

However, this year, motivated by the theme of Human Rights Day, we also highlighted and promoted the achievements of human rights defenders who act against discrimination. In his statement to mark this day, the UN Secretary-General called them “courageous women and men, striving to protect their own rights and the rights of others, determined to make rights real in people's lives.”

The UN System in Russia honored with its traditional awards a feature and a documentary film in our programme, which most accurately and impressively reflected the theme of the UN Day ‘Speak Up… Stop Discrimination’. One of them was ‘Remote Land’ by a prominent film-maker Alexei Uchitel, where the main character strives for his life and love and for those who cannot survive without his protection. The other film is a documentary ‘To Be Together’ – a selection of stories of persons with disabilities and their difficult, but successful integration into society.

This year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Moscow introduced a special award ‘For a Civil Action in the Field of Human Rights Protection’ to single out outstanding activists contributing to the promotion of human rights in the field of art and culture in Russia. The first such award was handed to the famous Russian actress and debutant film director Ludmila Gurchenko for her film ‘Motley Twilight’. The film is based on a real life story of a young and talented blind musician.

Three other films on various aspects of discrimination and human rights received OHCHR awards. One of them was the socio-psychological drama ‘Missing’. The Film Director, Anna Fenchenko, said: “The participation in the ‘Stalker’ Festival gave us an opportunity to present our film to the interested audience and to draw attention to the problems we have raised: first of all, the identity crisis, which makes a person unable to resist social injustice. For us, film makers, the special award of OHCHR is, in the first place, a sign of moral support and a confirmation of the fact that we have been heard. It is particularly important today, when it becomes more and more difficult to speak openly about the problems that the society is facing.”

An important contribution to human rights discussions at ‘Stalker’ was the round table, organized by OHCHR and dedicated to Human Rights Day. It brought together over sixty participants -prominent Russian human rights defenders from Moscow and a few regions, working in the field of countering discrimination (including the rights of disabled, rights of people living with HIV, rights of women, rights of ethnic minorities and migrants, rights of indigenous peoples, etc.), representatives of embassies and UN agencies, academia, and mass media. They discussion focused on the importance of countering all forms of discrimination, including revision of the legislation, as well as the proper implementation of the current legislation, and wide promotion of human rights and non-discrimination in the society.

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The“Stalker’ Festival was first organized in 1995. Its name came from the same title of the 1979 film by Andrey Tarkovsky - it had to symbolize an attempt to get into the “zone” largely unknown but relevant to all people, and to advocate for such human rights values as mercy, love, personal responsibility of a human being vis-a-vis the society.

In the 1990s the Russian cinematographers were actively studying the experience of the Soviet period; they often turned to the subject of Stalin’s repressions. Today, the variety of actual topics raised in the films includes terrorism and post-conflict resolution; generation gap and HIV/AIDS; life of persons with disabilities and problems of migrants, and many others. In the changing environment ‘Stalker’ Festival continues to be a non-political and non-profit event.

The exhibition of UN posters on fighting poverty in the foyer of the House of Cinema

The packed hall of the House of Cinema at the opening of ‘Stalker’ film festival

OHCHR prize winner and famous actress Lyudmila Gurchenko

On the stage of the House of Cinema, UN representatives greet the director of one of the films awarded by the UN