Belarus - The Short Dream of Freedom

"Nobody expected that there would be so much violence on August 9. That such a gigantic massacre would happen," the television journalists said.

Both worked for Belarusian state television, and both were on the job, the day of the presidential election in the summer of 2020. This film traces how the Lukashenko regime suppressed widespread popular protest and silenced public dissent.  In the 2020 election, it became clear that the people of Belarus did not want to see the "last dictator of Europe," Alexander Lukashenko, elected head of state again.

Many supported the opposition party led by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. But Lukashenko falsified the election results and declared himself the election’s winner. Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life protested against this fraud, and the arbitrariness of the state apparatus. Nothing like this had never happened on such a scale in all the decades of Lukashenko's rule. 

The regime used brutal force to put down the peaceful protests. They imprisoned the demonstrators, many of whom were mistreated and tortured. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and other leading opposition figures were forced to flee abroad. Ordinary citizens who had taken part in protests or strikes against the regime were also forced to leave Belarus. 

Filmmaker Irene Langemann met Belarusians in exile in Poland and Germany. They recount their experiences after the rigged elections and provide exclusive insights into the workings of Belarus’ repressive regime.

One of the film’s interview subjects is Alexander Azarov. A former lieutenant colonel in the Belarusian police, he changed sides after the elections and joined the BYPOL organization in Poland. This was founded by former members of the Belarusian security forces to collect testimonies and data on torture, recordings of telephone conversations, and videos with incriminating footage, with the goal of using this information for future trials. 

Former Belarusian Culture Minister Pavel Latushko also fled to Warsaw and is now one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition in exile. Given what he knows today, he says, he should have been at the forefront of the protests and ensured free reporting.

Maria Kolesnikova has a different story: one of the heads of the opposition party, she opposed the regime at the time of the crackdowns. She was arrested and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Her sister Tatiana Khomich works to keep the fates of the numerous political prisoners in Belarus in the international public eye. 

Many Belarusians in exile believe that the peaceful protests forged the people together as a nation for the first time - until their despotic ruler used violence to silence any criticism. Moving archival footage and little-known images from private sources track what has been happening in Belarus since the 2020 elections. They provide deep insights into the suppression of a democratic movement - insights that are particularly oppressive and revealing in view of the war in Ukraine.


Broadcasting Hours: 

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