Canadian-Estonian filmmaker Marcus Kolga’s 2006 documentary about his Estonian grandfather’s experience and escape from the Soviet Gulag, titled “Gulag 113”, is now available on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The film, produced for Canadian national television in 2006, was acclaimed by Estonian film critics and won the 2006 New York Festivals Award for best Documentary and a 2006 Canadian CMA Award for best documentary.
It follows the 89-year-old Eduard Kolga, as he returns to the far north of Russia to find the camp that he was incarcerated in during 1941, after he, along with 30,000 other Estonian men, were illegally forced to mobilise with the Soviet Red Army.
Eduard recounts his harrowing tale of survival in the Soviet camp system where one third of his countrymen died as a result of forced labour and inhumane living conditions – including starvation, disease and malnutrition.
The film’s writer and director, Marcus Kolga, is a Canadian human rights activist, journalist and analyst of foreign disinformation and influence operations. He led the Canadian civil society campaign for Magnitsky sanctions legislation and continues to advocate on behalf of human rights victims around the world.
Cover: A still from “Gulag 113”.
