Hacker Cinema
Bandits
2003 · Film · documentary · 52 min
Directed by Zaza Rusadze
Retraces the roots of the escapade of a group of Georgians in their twenties who hijacked an Aeroflot passenger plane on November 18, 1983 from Tbilisi.
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1 comment on Hacker News
Reminds me of this story which had a great documentary but extremely sad ending of 7 young people trying to flee communist Georgia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_6833
Here is the documentary by a local Georgian director that stuck in my head for a long time:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818087/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUkluq8oPvY
These were kids of the Georgian intelligentsia, including trained doctors, painters, and an actor, doing something naive and stupid (hijacking a plane to go to the nearest capitalist country). It turned out even the pilots were armed, shot at them, and turned the flight right back to Georgia.
The head of local KGB then got Georgian soldiers to shoot up the plane "so it wouldn't leave", killing the pilots "by accident" and injuring innocent passengers. The plane was then raided by Soviet Alpha group (basically their US Delta Force).
The communist leader of Georgia at the time wanted to make an example of them and gave death sentences, even despite their ages, except of course the one girl got 15yrs. The parents didn't find out they were executed by the state for five years (nor did the media obviously).
The desire to leave the Iron Curtain countries lead to some crazy stories and near suicidal attempts. And these stories were quickly forgotten.