BIRLYANT, UNE HISTOIRE TCHETCHENE
by Helen Doyle, Documentary, 80', 2007, Digital Beta, CANADA

Birlyant Ramzaeva sees her life bursting because of the war in Chechnya. Her song and her music are her only weapons. The poet and playwright Makkal Sabdoulaev, the great love of her life, is also her mentor. Before disappearing in July 2000, carried off by the Russian forces, he will sign several of the texts put into music by Birlyant. The history of this simple woman presents, under a particular angle, a real as life point of view on the Chechnya conflict and the consequences of the war and tragic destiny of its people.

HELEN DOYLE
Helen Doyle was born in 1950 in Quebec. In 1973 she becomes the co-founder of a collective video enterprise "Video Women of Quebec". She directed about fifteen documentary that plunge in the world of madness and creation: Les Mots/Maux du silence (1982), young people in exile: Le Rendez-vous de Sarajevo (1997), and a feature Soupirs d’âme (2000) awarded at Créteil (2005). She also directed a short film based on our Festival’s 10th edition of our festival Les Dames aux caméras in 1988.