Ifc Midnight Debuts Burial Trailer Ww2 Thriller Premieres Sept 2

Set in the last days of WWII, “Burial” tells the fictional story of a small band of Russian soldiers, led by intelligence officer Brana Vasilyeva (Vega), tasked with delivering the remains of Hitler back to Stalin in Russia. En route, the unit is attacked by German “Werewolf” partisans and is picked off one by one. Brana leads her surviving comrades in a last stand to ensure their “cargo” doesn’t fall into the hands of those who would see it buried, in order to hide the truth forever.

When Hitler’s burnt remains were first discovered by the Red Army, Stalin ordered that information be kept secret, afraid that news of the dictator’s suicide would cause the Allies to withdraw their support of Russia. The truth was buried, and information was purposely obscured. Sound familiar? Stalin even said in June 1945 that he thought Hitler was alive and now living in South America or Francoist Spain, despite the Soviet forces having recovered at least a jawbone from the dictator with enough teeth still attached to compare against dental records to confirm his death. That slice of history led writer/director Ben Parker to further explore the story of the “Werewolf,” rogue German soldiers that operated behind enemy lines to attack the Allied forces. “I kept finding myself going down rabbit holes with different history books and noticed that things were more contentious than traditionally accepted, especially concerning the remains of Hitler’s body,” said in a statement shared with IndieWire. While Brana is a fictional character, Parker and Vega drew from sources about the Soviet female snipers of WWII and those female officers who worked for Stalin’s secret service. “I ended up doing my own research to pay homage. I found out about The Night Witches, the female Soviet fighter pilots, and read Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War,” Vega said. “All these women were encouraged to go and fight in the war, but when they came home, they were ostracized, told to keep quiet, burying the truth, which is was why I felt Ben’s film captured that beautifully.”