The war in Ukraine has made it abundantly clear that we’ve not been listening enough to states bordering on Russia. Whether from the Baltic area or from the Caucasus, from Belarus or from Kazakhstan, everyone’s asking: who’s next?
In this program, we will discuss with (former) reporters in post-Soviet states what it means to live in a country that’s in Russia’s shadow. How does the recent invasion reverberate in these countries, and how do they look at each other?
Starting from footage and stories the reporters collected over the years, we will talk about the need for alliances among post-Soviet states as well as their shared frustration to still be defined by their relation with Russia.
This programme is part of So Far, Yet So Close: A day-long program of talks, film, and art about the war in Ukraine, activism and the fight against authoritarianism from a Belarusian perspective.
Speakers
Festival Programme
The awarded Belarus documentary film When Flowers are not Silent is an emotional testimony of the state’s violent repression against peaceful protests. Director Andrei Kutsila captures the daily lives of brave citizens who try to continue living and carry on despite being traumatised. Looking at their lives, we can see the pain and hope, feel
How do you keep fighting in a country that is terrorized by a dictator? In Belarus, this means dealing with teargas, state violence and fake news. In this program, we will be looking into the mass protests in August 2020 with those who participated in them, those who organized them and those who wrote about them.
Every day we wake up and look at the news, and sometimes you can feel paralysed and silenced in the face of evil and terror. But despite all circumstances we chose to raise my voice and say out loud ‘No!’- no to the war, no to the oppression, no to the death Lena Davidovich, artist
