Staffan Lamm , THE HISTORY ALWAYS REPEATS ITSELF

The film „Russell Tribunal“, which is in the programme of this year's Festival, was produced in 2003, although its production began already in 1967.

- For almost forty years my film was lying in different cellars. It was dispersed in the stables throughout Sweden . I had to do a detective's job in order to trace al the rolls. It took years. It is interesting that the film was in an excellent condition. The film ended up in a bunker as it was dealing with a court process, the Rusell Tribunal, and with it we wanted to express our protest against the war in Vietnam and to condemn the American side in it. That was an attempt to show to the world in a symbolical way what was going on. There was no money in Vietnam to send the people there to film on spot what was happening; that is why I went to Stockholm to film what different doctors, army experts, scientists, testified at the court … we have filmed 18 hours of testifying. The political pressure was enormous. We were paralyzed. Nothing happened, and I was so disappointed that I did not even want to deal with it. During the years, the material was dispersed throughout the country, and I did not think about it until a few years ago. When Bush attacked Iran , it occurred to me that the situation is very similar to the war in Vietnam . As if I had found a parallel with which I could show both the present and the past situation that marked that time.

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