LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Of all the rotten things that happen in our world, it's difficult to determine which is the most rotten to watch. But here's a candidate -- "Children of Beslan," a most telling HBO-BBC co-production hour on the kids who survived the takeover of School No. 1 by a masked Chechen separatist band armed with assault weapons, bombs and evil intentions.
That was one year ago Thursday, for 57 hours before the hell of the hell broke loose. The final accounting isn't done yet, and there's blood splattered all over the ruins.
The summary at this point is 331 dead, including 186 children.
Of the enormous amount of film around, producer-directors Ewa Ewart and Leslie Woodhead could have shown so many shredded and body parts that you couldn't watch it. But they took a more devastating approach -- interviewing the children.
The children walk us through their wreckage, as if giving a tour. They reflect on how that used to have fun and now they don't have as many friends as they did before. One little girl's mother was dead; they could tell because of the DNA. Another little girl wants to bring a knife into Chechnya and kill the terrorists.
Among the deadliest notations is from Lana, who kept asking God to "save us all, please. . . . He saved those he could manage to save, and the ones he couldn't, he kept with him. He kept the best. The most beautiful ones died."
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