On September 1, 2004, this mother sent 8-year-old Zalina and 10-year-old Fatima to school alone while she stayed home with little Georgy, who was teething. Zalina never returned. Fatima suffered severe head injuries and was barely saved. History teacher Nadezhda Guriyeva, another subject of the film, was at the school that day. After the first explosion in the gym, she found her 8-year-old daughter alive, her 14-year-old son barely breathing, and her 11-year-old daughter dead. Galina Babenkova discovered her grandson’s burned backpack among the ruins and refused to leave, searching for Timur, but he was never found.
Twenty years after the attack, Margarita Simonyan returns to the school where she reported live under fire. She returns to Beslan, where there is a «City of Angels»—the cemetery for the victims. To the city where everyone knows each other’s pain and where nothing is forgotten.
Beslan 2004/2024
