Filmotor has picked up world sales rights for “Letters From the Silenced Country” by Belarusian writer-director Andrei Kutsila, which has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
The partly animated documentary, screening in the Venice Open – Out of Competition section, is a portrait of contemporary Belarus told through stories of individuals who have endured imprisonment, repression and exile – voices silenced by an autocratic regime.
Following Belarus’ peaceful protests in 2020, the regime’s violent crackdown left many dead, injured, imprisoned or forced into exile. The war in Ukraine triggered anti-war resistance and even harsher repression, making public dissent nearly impossible. Against this backdrop, letters became one of the few remaining connections between political prisoners and the outside world.
The film “transforms private stories into a cinematic space of dignity, intimacy and reflection, revealing the human cost of resistance and exploring themes of sacrifice, solidarity, and survival in a country where dissenting voices have been silenced,” according to a statement.
Here’s the synopsis: When the streets are quiet and people are afraid to even discuss politics in Belarus, letters can give us an insight into the feelings of pain, despair, love and hope.
Each story reveals a different facet of repression. A father lives in hiding, evading surveillance to avoid arrest and separation from his daughter. A former criminal investigator breaks with the system, flees Belarus, and, in exile in Poland, faces repeated interrogations and an increasing sense of isolation and powerlessness. Kasia, a young student imprisoned for her participation in protests, turns to drawing as a means of survival – preserving her identity and expressing what cannot be spoken openly. Fifty-year-old Vitold’s story unfolds through photographs sent by a friend from home: carefully chosen fragments of a life beyond prison walls that offer moments of freedom while revealing both what is visible and what remains hidden.
Kutsila is a Belarusian documentary filmmaker based in Poland. His documentaries have been screened and awarded at major international festivals, including IDFA, DOK Leipzig, Hot Docs and the Krakow Film Festival.
His documentary “Summa” (2018) won the IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary, followed by the Silver Hobby-Horse for Best Documentary in the National Competition at the Krakow Film Festival in 2019. “When Flowers Are Not Silent” (2021) received the Best Feature Documentary Award at the Warsaw Film Festival.
Forced to leave Belarus after the 2020 protests, Kutsila settled in Poland, where he continued his artistic development through an internship at the Łódź Film School. Over the past five years, his work has focused primarily on documenting the experiences of Belarusians living under repression and in exile.
Michaela Čajková, founder and sales and festivals executive at Filmotor, said, “Using an innovative blend of animation, archive and personal correspondence, Kutsila crafts an essential, unforgettable portrait of human dignity against autocratic repression.”
Producer Mirosław Dembiński, president at DocEdu Foundation, said, “Twenty years ago, I directed the film ‘Lesson of Belarusian,’ which chronicled the repression of the Lukashenko regime: street brutality by the police, mass arrests and long sentences. Since then, it’s been the same: the same batons, the same prisons, the same Lukashenko. Since 2020, it’s been even worse, because the scale of repression has become more widespread. Andrei Kutsila took on the challenge of making a documentary about political prisoners in Belarus. It’s also an artistic challenge: how to make a film about someone who can’t be filmed. I think he’s found a way.”
“Letters From the Silenced Country” is produced by DocEdu Foundation in Poland in co-production with Moonmakers in Lithuania, and Inselfilm Produktion in Germany. It was supported by the Polish Film Institute, the Lithuanian Film Center and Connected Foundation, and was co-produced by TVP, EC1 – Lodz City of Culture and ZDF, in collaboration with ARTE and Deutsche Welle.
The project participated in the following development programs: Young Europe, B2B, Ex Oriente, East Doc, Doc Leipzig Co-Pro Market, Movies That Metter, MDAG Industry and Watch Docs.
