FESTIVAL "THE TIME OF OUR HEROES" IN BANJA LUKA ON MAY 19 AND 20

MOSCOW, APRIL 28 /SRNA/ – The international war documentary film festival RT.Doc "The Time of Our Heroes" will be held on May 19 and 20 at the Cultural Center Banski Dvor in Banja Luka.

"The festival will be a platform for the development of cultural ties between brotherly nations and will help protect the shared history of memory. Viewers in Srpska will have the opportunity to watch films that reveal the truth about events in the Special Military Operation zone, which have been intentionally hidden from Western politicians," stated the International Television Network RT to SRNA.

They added that there has been a public interest in holding such events in Republika Srpska for some time, and local patriotic communities provide significant support in organizing them.

The festival's opening ceremony will be held on May 19 at 7:00 PM, followed by the premiere of the film by Russian documentarist RT.Doc Vitaliy Buzuyev, "The Exclusion Zone: The Third Reich Against Serbs".

The film talks about the greatest tragedy of the 20th century, the crimes committed by the Nazi regimes against the Serbian people and the creation of enmity between Croats and Serbs, who had lived in peace for centuries, according to the statement.

This work portrays the tragedy of an entire nation and ordinary people. It features stories like that of a woman born in the Sajmište concentration camp, miraculously saved and carried out in a sack, at the cost of her mother's death in a gas chamber.

Throughout the festival, viewers will also be presented with films about the crimes committed by the Kyiv regime, facts about the genocide against civilians by Ukrainian criminals, stories of how clergy help civilians survive attacks by Ukrainian armed forces, and examples of how European artistic currents provide humanitarian aid to the people of Donbas.

There will also be films about the defenders of Donbas, heroes on the front lines and in the rear, volunteers, doctors, war correspondents, artists, and musicians. The core of each film is a touching story, where behind every frame lies a human destiny.

The special significance of this festival is also given by the fact that Russia is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War this year, according to RT, adding that their cinemas are territories of truth.

"The festival collection contains more than 100 films. These are films by war correspondents from RT, First Channel, VGTRK, Zvezda TV, SPAS TV, and independent authors, including foreign ones. The festival features documentary films from filmmakers from Italy, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Serbia, Slovakia, France, the USA, and other countries," RT stated.

The International RT.Doc Festival "The Time of Our Heroes" gathers documentary filmmakers, war correspondents, artists, poets, musicians, and public opinion representatives.

The festival program connects a common idea: "This is the time of heroes. This is our time."

The festival's accompanying program includes roundtables with representatives of Russian intellectual circles, military correspondents, and public figures from Republika Srpska. The discussion topics will include neo-Nazi challenges in Russian and Serbian society, as well as issues of preserving the history of memory. Viewers will also have the opportunity to converse and exchange opinions with the filmmakers.

Festival screenings have already been held in more than 20 countries: Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Vietnam, Egypt, Zambia, India, Italy, Cambodia, Cyprus, China, Lebanon, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, and South Ossetia.

In Rome, a group of Ukrainians shouted Nazi slogans and tried to disrupt the screening, but despite this, the tickets were sold out. In Serbia, the festival was led by the celebrated Serbian and world director Emir Kusturica, who proposed that "The Time of Our Heroes" become a traditional annual event.

The festival has been held four times in Moscow. Due to huge public interest, the festival expanded to other regions and was held in Krasnodar, Kazan, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Kursk, Volgograd, Makhachkala, and Kostroma.

During its years of broadcasting, the 24-hour documentary channel RTD (https://doc.rt.com/?yscliđm0gaqdhilo887877049) has aired more than 1,500 films. Many of them have won prestigious international awards, including the New York Festival, Telly Awards, and OMNI Intermedia Awards.

The International Television Network RT includes news channels in English, Arabic, Spanish, German, Serbian, and French, as well as the documentary channel RTD in Russian and English. The network also includes online portals in seven languages, including Serbian and Russian, and the global multimedia agency RUPTLY, which provides exclusive content to TV channels worldwide.

RT is present in Chinese on popular Chinese social media platforms, as well as on Hindi-language social media platforms.

RT has been a finalist for the prestigious international Emmy Award 11 times.