Chechnya. A man and his son bring grandmother, Seda, from Grozny to the rural area of Khaibakh, a mountain, where they pray at a grave. The boy asks how come the grave has two dates of the deceased, one in 1 9 4 4 and the other in 2 0 1 1. The grandmother remembers: during World War II, Chechnya is experiencing an uprising against the Soviet occupation, with the rebels demanding independence. One man, Daud, becomes a rebel himself and hides in the mountains after the Soviet secret police arrested his father, while his mother died from mourning. Seda, a girl from the neighboring house, joins Daud and they get married. Soviet soldiers suddenly start amassing in the area. One day, the enter the homes of the Chechens and start deporting them together with the Ingush. Since Khaibakh is too steep, and the trucks are unable to get there, the NKVD commander orders the Red Army to lock up hundreds of Chechens in a barn and burn them all alive. One boy escapes through the window. Daud shoots the Soviet soldier who wanted to shoot the boy, thereby saving the kid.
A rare film adaptation of Aardakh, the Soviet deportation of Chechens and Ingush, this film is a modern testimony how some war crimes are never forgotten, since their damage echoes through generations. The director Hussein Erkenov crafts a good depiction of events, though "Ordered to Forget" is less interesting in the first, somewhat pale half, and much more interesting in the second half which slowly builds up suspense stemming from the beginning of the deportation. The opening act sets up a good framing device, depicting a family arriving on a hill to pray at a grave. The kid is wondering how come their grandfather's tombstone says that he died in 1 9 4 4 and 2 0 1 1, until it is later revealed that he died once, physically, but also died before that, from a broken heart, during the deportation. The characters of Daud and Seda do not have that much character development, since the story's focus is more on other people in Chechnya as a whole, though he has a few sharp criticism against Goreshist Russia ("They kill people by such plentiful, they stopped feeling someone else's pain"). The second half conjures up much more drama and pathos by depicting the tragedy of the said deportation: a Soviet soldier has pity on an old farmer and tells him to prepare food because the Karachay were already deported six months ago and died massively from hunger; a pregnant Chechen woman is arrested by two Soviet soldiers at her home; Soviet soldiers even enter a hospital and question about if any patients are Chechens or Ingush, showing any lack of compassion while following their orders. This all culminates in the dark, disgusting, unbearable finale depicting the Khaibakh massacre, revealing the event as what it is: a crime against humanity.
Grade:++
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