Barzahk is the term used within Islam for the period between someone’s death and their resurrection. For director and cultural anthropologist, Mantas Kvedaravicius, it represents the void of uncertainty and the absence of fathers and sons which characterizes many Chechen families.
The cinematographer examines how it is possible after all the experiences of torture and bereavement to still remain human. For his protest against the enforced, superficial normality of the dictatorship in Chechnya he uses powerful poetic images. His visually and substantively powerful film received the support of the Finnish cinematographer, Aki Kaurismӓki, and won the Amnesty International Film Prize at the 2011 Berlinale.