Hollywood movie upsets Ossetian audience

A new Hollywood movie entitled Aftermath, which explores the tragic tale of a native North Ossetian, Vitaly Kaloev, was criticized during a closed preliminary screening at the international multimedia press center, Russia Today, in Moscow.

“The facts have been heavily distorted in the film. The movie producers never even contacted Kaloev,” noted journalists attending the screening.

The film will officially be released this week on 7 April.

The movie is based on a story of Vitali Kaloev, whose family members died in an air crash over Lake Constance in Germany in 2002. Having lost his daughter and wife, Kaloev did not wait for the court’s verdict; instead, he found and murdered the person responsible for the tragedy – an air traffic controller, who caused the collision of the two planes.

The action takes place in the USA. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars the grieving father, who is thirsty for revenge. The role of the air traffic controller, accused of innocent deaths, is played by Scoot McNairy.

“There is nothing Caucasian about Schwarzenegger’s look. Not a tiny thing. You do not even need to scrutinize it. Before watching, I wanted to believe that I would be left overwhelmed. But Schwarzenegger performs very, very poorly. Among the best of Schwarzenegger’s roles is a famous movie titled True Lies. The movie on Vitaly Kaloev, unfortunately, could also be titled exactly like that,” said Lev Rizhkov, a journalist, following the screening.

The official trailer released on 8 February does not indicate whether the movie is based on nor follows actual facts. Two strangers get inextricably bonded in the aftermath of a devastating air crash, according to the trailer.

Ksenia Kaspari, Journalist and author of a documentary novel titled Collision, which tells the story of Vitaly Kaloev, has well touched upon the topic. Her novel will be on sale in mid-April.

“I have reviewed tonnes of documents on the air crash, reports on Kaloev’s interrogation and witnesses from the case. This has been an enormous and difficult task, but I am very glad to have been able to see it through to the end,” Kaspari wrote on Facebook.

• On 1 July 2002, a passenger plane from Russia’s Bashkirian Airlines carrying children who were on holiday, from Moscow to Spain, collided with a DHL cargo jet. Everyone on board both flights died, including Kaloev’s wife and two children. Investigators concluded later that the Swiss air navigation service provider ‘Skyguide’ was to blame.

• On 24 February 2004, air traffic controller Peter Nielsen who had been handling air traffic when the collision occurred, was killed outside his home in Switzerland. Vitaly Kaloev was arrested on suspicion of being the killer. He told the police he had gone to see Nielsen because he wanted him to apologize for the death of his family. But, he said, as he held out photos of his children to show to Nielsen the man hit him on the hand. Kaloev allegedly did not remember anything of what had happened after that.

• In 2005, Kaloyev was found guilty by a Swiss court and sentenced to eight years in prison.

• In November 2007, he was let out on parole and went back home. He was given a hero’s welcome on his return to North Ossetia and appointed ‘deputy minister of construction architecture of the republic’ in 2008.

The opinions expressed in the article convey the author’s views and terminology and not necessarily reflect the position of the editorial staff