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Andrei Kutsila is a Belarusian documentary filmmaker based in Poland. His documentaries have been screened and awarded at major documentary festivals, including IDFA, DOK Leipzig, Hot Docs, Krakow Film Festival, and others. Forced to leave Belarus after the 2020 protests, he still makes documentaries about Belarusians living under repression and in exile.
Provide emergency support to political prisoners in Belarus and to those forced to flee the country and in urgent need of help.
Synopsis
Letters From the Silenced Country (Listy) is a portrait of contemporary Belarus told through stories of individuals who have endured imprisonment, repression, and exile – voices silenced by an autocratic regime.
Each story reveals a distinct experience of repression. A father hides from surveillance to avoid arrest and separation from his daughter. A former criminal investigator chooses to leave the system, flees Belarus, and in exile in Poland faces repeated interrogations and a growing sense of deadlock and powerlessness. Kasia, a young student sentenced for protesting, survives through drawing, using her art to preserve a sense of self and to express what cannot be openly said. We also meet 50-year-old Vitold, whose story unfolds through photographs sent by a friend from home – carefully selected fragments of a world beyond the prison walls, offering him moments of freedom while exploring not only what can be seen, but also what remains unseen. Combining observational footage, archival and found materials, testimonies, and animation based on drawings created in confinement, the film transforms private correspondence into a cinematic space of intimacy, dignity, and reflection, raising questions about sacrifice, solidarity, and the human cost of resistance in a silenced country.
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Context
Since 2020, over 65,000 politically motivated arrests and detentions have been recorded in Belarus, with many of them resulting in years-long prison sentences.
The United Nations documented systematic torture of political prisoners: beatings, isolation, cold, hunger and the denial of medical care.
Despite internationally negotiated releases, new political prisoners keep filling the cells. Many of those freed were forcibly expelled from Belarus without documents or belongings.
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