In time for the annual May 21 “Circassian Day of Remembrance and Mourning,” filmmaker Dalia Alsadi released a documentary titled “Circassians.” The film centers on the how the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics took place on the mass graves of the traditional Circassian homeland. It captures the Circassian movement today, which has three main goals: the recognition of the genocide that took place in the 19th century in Circassia, the repatriation of the diaspora to their homeland, and the unification of the Circassian lands.
Circassians, and quite recently Georgia, consider the killings of Circassians by Russia in 1864 in the Sochi area as genocide. Before the Olympics, the Circassian nation raised awareness about the terrible events, saying, in particular, that it is a violation of the Olympic spirit to hold the Games on ground where such atrocities occurred.
Interviewed briefly in Alsadi’s film are Sufian Zhemukhov (United States), Rayan Bater (Austria), and Nart Pshegubj (Jordan). Dalia Alsadi’s previous film was the Emmy-winning video “Leni Sinclair.”
