NCCEV Press Releases

For immediate release: August 24th, 2005

CHILDREN OF BESLAN RECOUNTS THE HORRORS OF THE
2004 RUSSIAN SCHOOL SIEGE IN THE YOUNG SURVIVORS’ OWN WORDS
WHEN THE HBO DOCUMENTARY SPECIAL DEBUTS SEPT. 1,
THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE TRAGEDY

In Russia, Sept. 1 is the Day of Knowledge, a joyous annual event marking the start of the new school year. But Knowledge Day 2004 was different at School No. 1 in Beslan:

A group of heavily armed rebel extremists stormed the school, holding more than a thousand children and adults hostage in a sweltering gymnasium for three days. The harrowing siege ended Sept. 3 in a series of explosions and hail of gunfire that killed some 350 people – half of them children. Marking the first anniversary of the tragedy, the HBO documentary specialCHILDREN OF BESLAN tells the stories of the youngest survivors when it debuts:

THURSDAY, SEPT. 1 (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
Other playdates: Sept. 7 (2:30 p.m.), 13 (5:00 p.m.), 17 (noon), 19 (11:40 p.m.) and 23 (10:30 a.m.).
HBO2 playdates: Sept. 4 (7:00 p.m.), 8 (11:30 a.m.) and 27 (2:45 p.m.).

Featuring heartbreaking interviews with more than a dozen young survivors, as well as chilling footage shot by the hostage-takers themselves, CHILDREN OF BESLAN explores the devastating impact of violent conflict on children. Through the words of those left orphaned and bereft of family and friends, details of the 57-hour siege emerge, from the confusing first moments, when pupils heard noises they thought were balloons popping, to the numbing hours and days in the overheated gymnasium, to the devastating final hours, when bombs taped to walls and suspended from ceilings went off, and hundreds of panicked hostages, bullets flying around them, began scrambling over the bodies of victims in search of safety.

Ranging in age from six to 12, the kids recount the events that robbed them of their family, friends and innocence – describing experiences that are chillingly familiar.

Day One: On the traditional start of the school year in Russia, hundreds of excited children filed into School No. 1 in Beslan, accompanied by parents, teachers and festive balloons. Suddenly, a noise “like an explosion” went off, which young pupils Laima and Diana thought was balloons popping. “Then I saw there were people in masks – terrorists,” remembers Kristina. “They were really scary, with pistols…I got scared.”

Day Two: The captors began denying water to the hostages. Lana was told by her mother that the captors were making a film, but couldn’t understand why they couldn’t drink. “I thought, ‘What kind of film is this?’ In films they let you drink water,” she says. Hostages started drinking urine in the stifling heat. They were also ordered to keep their hands over their heads. Children worried about looking directly at their captors. Says Carat, “One looked at me, and stood there staring at me for 20 seconds. I got scared so I turned away. His eyes were like glass – so black, like glass.” Numbing despair set in, interrupted by flights of fancy. “I was hoping that Harry Potter would come,” Carat recalls. “I was thinking he had a cloak that made him invisible, and he would come and wrap me in it, and we’d be invisible and we’d escape.”

Day Three: As anxious parents and troops milled around the school’s perimeter, hostages inside grew desperate. While medical workers were removing bodies of victims from the school, bombs that had been rigged in the gym inexplicably went off, triggering a panicked rush by survivors, more explosions, and a fierce gunfight between the rebels and authorities, who had been waiting to move in. The siege killed some 200 adults and 171 children, surpassing the tragic 2002 Moscow theater siege by Chechen extremists. Amidst the smoke and carnage, some children were able to flee to safety. One was Lana, who kept asking God, she says, “ ‘Save us all, please.’ But He failed to save us. He might have wanted to. He saved those He could manage to save, and the ones He couldn’t, He kept with him. He kept the best. The most beautiful ones died.”

Most surviving children now study at another school in town, with some fearful parents still accompanying them to school. The children’s scars, visible and hidden, remain. “I have fewer friends than I used to,” says Carat. “The ones who survived – we’re not the same funny kids we used to be, we’re serious now. We’re already grownups. We don’t fight any more... Even little boys became adults. Kids understand everything.”
Says Kristina, “I always used to play and have fun. I grew up.”
Laima, who draws pictures of the siege and then burns them, has also written a poem, which reads, “Years will pass, and we will grow up/The school will blossom/Like an orchard in spring/And never, trust me, never/Will we let them destroy it.”

CHILDREN OF BESLAN was produced and directed by Ewa Ewart and Leslie Woodhead; executive producers for the BBC, Alan Hayling and Fiona Stourton. For HBO: supervising producer, Lisa Heller; executive producer, Sheila Nevins