Love Me, Please
Lubite menia, pojaluista
Valery Balayan / Russia / 2010 / 75 min.
In Valery Balayan's film, a female journalist from the Russian opposition newspaper Novaja Gazeta says its writers have the highest death rate among reporters. The worst thing is the feeling that anything could happen, she adds. Anastasia Baburova, one of the daily's journalists, died after being shot in the head in January 2009. During the attack, which took place in the middle of Moscow, Baburova's companion, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, was also killed after being shot twice. The two had worked together to draw attention to the danger of neo-Nazism in Russia, a fact probably linked to their fates. Balayan made the documentary partly as a tribute to Baburova, whose character and story are described in interviews with her parents, friends and colleagues. Such reflections alternate with scenes of neo-Nazi recruitment drives, street fights and rock concerts. In this way, ideals and the will to help are sharply contrasted with prejudice and dissatisfaction, converted into brutal violence and blind hate.