Oleg Sentsov is a popular Ukrainian director, screenwriter and writer. The focus of the media and the public was in 2014, when he was arrested and charged with organizing terrorist acts. He received 20 years in a maximum security colony. Before the loud arrest and sentence was known for the film "Gamer".
Childhood and youth
Oleg Sentsov was born in 1976 in Simferopol. After school, he entered the Hetman National University of Economics, located in Kiev. He graduated in 1998.
Then he went to Moscow, where he studied the basics of cinema in directorial courses. Returning to his native Simferopol, he opened a computer club in his city, which was his first successful business project. In the future, the life of gamers formed the basis of his full-length film "Gamer".
Career
For several years, the computer club was Oleg Sentsov's main source of income. With the money he earned, he even managed to remove his first picture.
The movie "Gamer" took $ 20,000, with all the actors playing for free. The tape came out in 2011. It tells about the life of a teenager from Simferopol Alexei, who is passionate about computer games in specialized clubs. This passion becomes the main thing in his life, for her he does not notice the mother, who is worried about the studies abandoned by her son, as well as the girl in love with him.
In his professional environment, he is considered one of the best, goes to the prestigious international tournament in Los Angeles, where he occupies only the second place. Returning to his native Simferopol, in an anger he gets rid of everything that connected him with the world of computer games.
The film directed by Oleg Sentsov received positive reviews from critics; its premiere took place at the international film festival in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. At the festival "Spirit of Fire" in Khanty-Mansiysk, the tape was awarded the Guild of Film Critics and Film Critics.
Filmography
Prior to his arrest in 2014, Oleg Sentsov had two more short films. This is the "Bull Horn" and "Banana Fish Are Well Caught."
In 2013, it became known that he began work on his second full-length picture called "Rhino." It was supposed to be dedicated to the lives of children in the 90s. The director even managed to get financial assistance from the Ukrainian government, but the work was not completed. A crisis began in the country, a military conflict began in the southeast, and the Crimea peninsula was annexed to Russia. The director himself was in prison.
In the thick of things
The crisis in Crimea provoked the organization Avtomaydana. As an indifferent citizen of Ukraine, Sentsov was at the epicenter of events. Some military units in the Crimea were blocked, the director made his way in to transfer humanitarian aid, was a member of the movement "For United Ukraine".
In the spring of 2014, a photo of Oleg Sentsov appeared after his arrest by the FSB. He was charged with terrorism. His defense was taken over by lawyer Dmitry Dinze, who already specialized in such cases. Soon new suspects appeared - Gennady Afanasyev, Alexey Chirniy, Alexander Kolchenko.
In May, a wave of public indignation arose due to the arrest of Sentsov. Representatives of various public organizations in different countries demanded his release, even participants and organizers of the Cannes Film Festival made a corresponding statement .
The essence of the charge
According to investigators, Sentsov and his accomplices planned to carry out a terrorist act near the monument to Lenin, and also organized the arson of the building, in which the office of the United Russia party was located in Crimea. He was also suspected of collaborating with the Ukrainian nationalist organization Right Sector, whose activities are banned in Russia. At the same time, its leader Dmitry Yarosh denied this fact.
Over time, Sentsov appeared new lawyers. He himself complained that he was tortured in custody and that physical force was used against him. According to the facts, his new lawyer Grozev even appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. In October, the prisoner testified in which he spoke in detail about bullying.
In 2014, many well-known filmmakers, such as Pedro Almodovar, addressed the request for the release of Sentsov in an open letter to Vladimir Putin.
Soon the case of Sentsov and Kolchenko united. They were suspected of a series of terrorist attacks that they were going to carry out under the leadership of Ukrainian nationalists. By that time, two other suspects agreed to cooperate with the investigation, they were sentenced. According to lawyers Kolchenko and Sentsov, the rest of the suspects gave false testimony in order to facilitate their fate.
Sentence
The sentence was sentenced in August 2015. He was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security colony. Kolchenko, who also pleaded not guilty, received ten years in prison. According to the text of the indictment, the suspect was preparing to set off explosive devices on the night of May 9, 2014 near the monument to Lenin in Simferopol, as well as at the Eternal Flame. In addition, he was charged with arsons of the office of United Russia and the public organization Russian Community of Crimea, which were committed in April 2014. That's what Oleg Sentsov was convicted of.
The verdict was appealed several times, but it did not lead to anything.
Convicted Oleg Sentsov was sent to a colony in Yakutia to serve his sentence. In October 2017, he was transferred to the city of Labytnangi in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, where the Polar Bear colony is located.
Sentsov’s case is described in detail in Askold Kurov’s documentary film “The Process,” which was shown at the Berlin Film Festival.
Hunger strike
Oleg Sentsov began the hunger strike on May 14, 2018, demanding the release of 64 political prisoners who are in Russian prisons. However, he did not include himself in this list. Two days later, this decision became known from his lawyer Dinza.
Sentsov was preparing for one and a half months to begin a hunger strike. He refused food transfers from relatives and supporters, ate the minimum amount of food, so that the transition to a complete refusal of food was not so much stress for the body.
After the start of the hunger strike, he was transferred to an isolated cell, where a health worker controls his state of health. At the same time, Sentsov agreed in writing to take a therapeutic nutrient mixture, as well as drugs that improve the functioning of his nervous and cardiovascular system.
In early August, it became known that his condition had worsened significantly, the director’s lawyers reported. Dinze reported that his pulse dropped to 40 beats per minute, hemoglobin dropped sharply, anemia appeared. At the same time, Sentsov refuses to go to the hospital, claiming that there the conditions will be even worse. At the same time, representatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service reported that his health was not deteriorated, there was no need for urgent hospitalization.
Personal life
Sentsov had a wife, Alla, with whom they had two children. This is the son of Vladislav and daughter Alina. In 2016, the director’s wife announced her desire to officially file a divorce, then her husband was under arrest.
She argued with reporters that she was unable to improve the financial situation of her family in this status. For example, she cannot buy housing. The prisoner's family was left without support, in addition, Alla, due to life circumstances, cannot work.