Jude Law will star in Belarus Free Theater’s movie

The Guardian newspaper and theater Young Vic are the producers of the film.

The screenplay for the movie has been written by Belarus Free Theater and a British playwright Lora Wade, Guardian’s web-site reports.

It is not the first time Jude Law cooperates with Belarus Free Theater. He took part in the theater’s performances Discover Love and Numbers in December 2010 in London. Jude Law also addressed Belarusians in a video appeal, in which he emphasized the importance of the freedom of speech and creative expression. The British actor took part in the actions of solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners.

The head of Belarus Free Theater Mikalaj Khalezin told Radio Svaboda about the movie.

“The movie project of London’s Young Vic theater and the Guardian is an attempt to link theater and cinema together. In the basis of its idea there is the adaptation of the most significant performances of Young Vic’s theatrical season to a short feature film version. But the interpretation of these performances is rather allegorical, in a form of a short metaphor. Belarus Free Theater is one of the four troupes selected for this project due to their successful projects of the stage of Young Vic theater, the resident of which the Belarusian theatrical group is.

The conditions are the same for all the four creative groups: the same amount of money is allocated for the filming with absolute artistic freedom, casting and the style of performing guaranteed.

The initial push for the creation of the screenplay was given by Natalia Kaliada, when she suggested to stage the story in an airport terminal. After that I wrote a screenplay, having invited a brilliant playwright Lora Wade for cooperation. She adapted the work for the British audience. We have been friends for many years and understand each other well, that is why it was easy to work at the screenplay. This easiness converted into the result: the screenplay has been accepted from the first draft – we almost have not reworked it, which is very rare for cinematograph.

The main idea was to fill this short movie story with personal attitude, like it is done in theatrical works of Belarus Free Theater, that is why we were guided by our feelings and experiences of the recent years. This is exactly why there was the idea to invite Jude Law for the filming. Several things worked there. First, we have been friends for several years already. Second, Jude is one of Belarus Free Theater’s trustees. Third, we already had the experience of cooperation: Jude together with Siena Miller played in our performance Discover Love in Young Vic in the autumn of 2010. And in 2011 I and he played in the performance Jeans Generation in the building of British Parliament.

The plot of the movie is built around a meeting in a London airport terminal: a Belarusian, who needs to change for a flight to Minsk, meets a Brit, who has returned back home. I do not want to tell the plot to save the intrigue for spectators. Me and Jude play the main role, since we are partly the prototypes of the characters, and Uladzimir Shcherban agreed to take upon the functions of the movie’s director”, - said Mikalaj Khalezin.