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For visitors today to Chechnya's bustling capital, Grozny, war already seems like a distant memory. But thousands of Chechens are still waiting for relatives who disappeared in the war to return - their hopes boosted by traditional beliefs about life and death.........Thousands of families cannot accept that loved-ones who disappeared may be dead - either because there has been no official confirmation of death, or because of the Chechen belief in the power of dreams.Relatives believe they connect with lost family members through dreams, and this hinders the process of mourning and moving on. As long as one family member can dream of the missing relative, the whole family feels his or her presence in their daily life.
Fortune tellers
The subject has been studied by Cambridge University social anthropologist Mantas Kvedaravicius, who spent long periods in Chechnya between 2007 and 2009 and shot a film that was premiered at this year's Berlin Film Festival.
"He comes to me each night, he is present in my life, his presence gives me joy," says one mother quoted by Kvedaravicius.
Another mother dreams of three people sleeping in a room. Two of them are her surviving sons, and the third bed, she reasons, must be occupied by her missing son.
"I want to lift the blanket, but I dare not look," she says. "I think if I look my heart will break. Better I should think that there lies my Rustam."
A third mother has a more puzzling story......
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