Russian theater director Yevgenia Berkovich and director of the play Finist the Bright Falcon Svetlana Petriychuk have had their detention extended until September 10, 2023.
The investigation believes that the play contained "signs of justifying terrorism and the ideology of ISIS." For this reason, a criminal case was initiated under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on public calls for terrorist activities, public justification of terrorism or its propaganda.
Earlier, the Ministry of Justice called the “destructological examination” that formed the basis of this case unscientific.
“Such an examination as a species (genus) does not exist and cannot be included in the list,” the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Expertise under the Ministry of Justice said. They also emphasized that destructology is not a science, a field of technology, art or craft. The Center's response was published by lawyer Berkovich:
Berkovich and playwright Petriychuk have been under arrest since May 5. They are involved in the case of "justifying terrorism", initiated because of the play "Finist Yasny Sokol". It tells about girls who left Russia to marry radical Islamists. The performance was staged in 2020, and in 2022 it received the Golden Mask award in two categories.
In early May, it became known that participants in the National Liberation Movement of Russia had written a denunciation of the performance Finist the Clear Sokol.
Evgenia Berkovich is known not only as a director, but also as a poetess. After the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Berkovich began to write poems about the war, here is one of them:
***
Whether he went through the news,
Whether wine at lunch,
Only at night did his grandfather, who had fought, come to Sergei.
He sat down on an Ikeev stool, blocking the yard with his back
Outside the window. At me, he says, to you,
Serezhenka, conversation.
Could you, my dear, beloved grandson,
Never post anything about me on Facebook?
In no context, neither with the letter z, nor without the letter z,
Just take it and don't do it, the grandfather asks.
No wins in my name
No wins at all.
Likewise, he continues, I would be glad
If you didn't carry me to the parade
I ask you very much, (and does so with his hand),
I don't need a regiment
Neither immortal nor mortal, Serezhenka, none.
Let me go to rest, Seryozha,
I deserve peace.
Yes, I know that you are a hard worker, smart, liberal,
You didn't choose this.
But I didn't choose either!
We've lived our lives
Heavy and one.
Can we no longer
Illustrate you war?
We're all guys
The earth has taken us.
You can somehow yourself.
Somehow from scratch.
We don't need your pride
Not your hidden shame.
I ask you to do so
To finally forget me.
But I'll forget, like in a Russian museum
We were looking for the ninth shaft,
How I woke up wet
And you dressed me
As they read Prishvin,
As they searched for the poles in the atlas,
As you explained to me why in the sky
Such a white line
For any aircraft
How he gave me
Magnifying glass…
Nothing, the grandfather answers,
Disappearing. It didn't help you either.