Belsat TV

Due to the lack of places in Belarusian prisons, an OMON employee has to take in 3 political prisoners for 2 weeks.

A film about contemporary Belarus, freedom and art. A mysterious artist appears on the streets of Minsk and starts to paint. Passers-by, intrigued, want to know what he is creating, but the artist will not reveal his secret. Step by step, the viewers learn more about him. His name is Zahar Cudin and he is one of the most promising Belorussian painters.

When Sasha turned 11, "it became dark around and it has been dark ever since." Many things in Sasha's life are surprising. Why is his work at the factory a great joy rather than a boring obligation? Why does he turn on the lights after sunset? He has been through a lot. Bullied and beaten in his childhood, Sasha was often very ill. Why does he never complain? It's a miracle he can hear at all. So he listens to the world around him, to what his fellow passengers on the bus talk about. Through these conversations about minor or important, private or global, fleeting and eternal things alike, Sasha gets to know people, as well as himself.

Another rigging of the presidential election in Belarus in 2020 led to massive civil resistance which the country had never experienced before. Brutal suppression of the peaceful protests resulted in more massive marches. Yet, the peaceful protests, having lasted for several months, did not achieve Alexander Lukashenko’s resignation from the president’s post he’s been holding for 27 years. Instead, political repressions in Belarus increased dramatically and became the largest in the history of Europe since the 1970s. The documentary focuses on the lives of Belarusian families who try to continue living and carry on despite being traumatised. Looking at their lives, we can see the pain and hope, feel the fear and determination of these people. An extraordinarily moving film from a Belarusian director living in Poland.

In 1937, most members of the Belarusian intelligentsia, including poets, were shot dead in Minsk on a "legal" basis. A few years later, their names were rehabilitated. However, despite this, most of them are still forgotten. 80 years after the tragedy, the young screenwriter begins to collect a portrait of these poets, their life in the 20-30s of the last century. Who were these people? What were their quirks? What inspired them, what they dreamed of and missed the most?

An old woman lives in a remote village in Belarus. As the end of her live approaches, she starts to read the worn-out notebooks of her daughter. Together we go on a journey to the unknown world of a person who is abandoned and forgotten by everybody.

Wadzim and Staś own a agritourism destination. They believe that the 2020 season will be successful because a very rare astronomical phenomenon, the so-called Planet Parade that occurs every 100 years. However, the unexpected events that began after the Presidential elections do not go according to plan.

On the night of August 13-14, the authorities started a mass release of protesters against rigged presidential elections from prisons on Akrestsina street in Minsk and Zhodzina. All these days hundreds of relatives waited, and some continue to wait under the walls of the detention facility for their children, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, parents and friends. Detainees come out of prisons and tell about the violence and abuse which they experienced. Information about this is instantly spread on the Internet. People already know the truth. Film director Andrey Kutsila will depict not the stories of torture victims themselves, but their relatives. Under the walls of the prison on Akrestsina street, they are in some emotional state of uncertainty, confusion and hope. The camera will “pick up” individual faces from the crowd and supposedly overhear conversations of Belarusians, filled with pain, anger and despair.

What will happen if the processes that are currently taking place in Belarus and with Belarusians do not stop and reach the point of absurdity? The processes of social disunity, the habit of everyday fear in some, and the impunity of others. The processes of internal migration and reinforcement of self-censorship, the reign of nonsense and meaninglessness. The process of destruction and simultaneous revival of the Belarusian language and culture. The processes of denigration of human dignity and creation of those guilty without the proof of their guilt. Processes of inflating militaristic sentiments and hatred of foreigners and dissenters. The process of Russia’s taking over Belarus and dragging it into a senseless war.

The film "Don't Be Afraid" tells about the struggle of the Belarusian people for fair elections. The fates of people who responded to the call of blogger Sergei Tikhonovsky and who took part in the 2020 presidential campaign are shown.

Druya is a small and old town. The most fascinating about it is not its history, not specific dates and names of people, but the atmosphere. Looking at the surviving walls and furnishings, the imagination itself depicts the history of this place. Sometimes in the empty half-abandoned architectural monuments one can feel the rumble of past epochs, the weight of centuries oversaturated with events.

Aliaksiej Ščadroŭ used to work as a paramedic in an ambulance emergency service in Belarus. His ambulance was often called to collect homeless people from the streets, but after a few kilometres the crew would throw them away. Once in prison, Aliaksiej found himself unwanted too. The time behind bars changed the former paramedic’s outlook on life. Following his release, Aliaksiej led a vagrant’s life and lived in church buildings. After that he settled in the Aliaksandraŭka village where he organised unofficial asylum —he started to admit poor, disabled people, take care of them, help them obtain reissued passports, and enable them to return to a normal way of life. Unfortunately, the local authorities have not been appreciative of Aliaksiej’s initiative...

A young Belarusian artist leaves her husband behind in Minsk to visit her friend, the elderly painter Andrzej Strumillo, in his idyllic manor house in Poland. It’s a fairy-tale place, surrounded by marshland and a river. There are horses, for which the two artists share a passion, as well as dogs. It has been two years since her last visit. For her, the trip offers a welcome diversion from city life; for him, it’s a break from a lonely existence marked by old age: a curved spine, painful knees. “It’s sad life’s so short,” he says.

In August 2020, people gathered on the steps of the Belarusian State Philharmonic in Minsk to protest against the fraudulent presidential election. Holding signs that read "Our voice has been stolen", they stood up to the violence by singing together. Although the authorities pacified this spontaneous gathering, musicians soon began to appear on protest marches in shopping centers and subways, each time inspiring people with songs about the dignity, courage, fate and faith of Belarusians. This is how one of the symbols of the Belarusian resistance movement - the "Free Choir" - was born .

Minsk. December 19th 2010. After the Belarus government blatantly hijacked the results of the presidential election, tens of thousands of Belarusians came to the streets in a peaceful protest. Tired of a ubiquitous system of lies, these demonstrators set their sights on truth and freedom.

"Love in Belarus" is love through the prison bars for Nasta Palazhanka and Dzmitry Dashkevich . They met in the "Young Front" - illegal Democratic organization. After protests in December 2010, they were put in prison. After detention in a KGB pretrial center Nasta was sentenced to a year of probation, and Dmitry was thrown in jail almost for three years. During his detention Dzmitry’s mom died, and Nastya remained the sole support for his father. The young couple married in prison, and on August 28, 2013 the leader of the "Young Front " was released. The lovers wrote thousands of letters to each other from behind the bars. These letters tell us about the feelings of young Belarusians, who fell in love in the time of the dictatorship.

Belarusians did not even discuss under which flag to unite. Memory and respect for the white-red-white banner has always lived in their hearts, and now, through pain and suffering, it has awakened and inspired the nation to move forward.

Can one tear oneself from hearth and home, even if it is very boring and lonely there? Andrei, a small man in a small place, has spent 15 years of his life working in a community club. But today the large hall is empty; from time to time children come in here to sing. Meanwhile real Belarusian culture with its authentic singing conceals itself far from the state institution in a small local country house. Every now and then Andrei calls on here. Nevertheless he tries hard to revive virtually dead cultural center, his only place and reason for existence.