For The First Time In 40 Years, A Film About Belarus Was Screened At The Venice Film Festival

Andrei Kutilo worked on it for five years.

The film “Listy” (“Letters from a Silent Country”) by Belarusian documentary filmmaker Andrei Kutilo tells the stories of people whose lives were changed by repression, imprisonment, and exile. The film was recently screened in the out-of-competition section of the Venice Film Festival. To date, only two films about Belarus have been included in the official program of this prestigious festival: *Ivan Makarovich* (1968) by Igor Dobrolyubov and *Come and See* (1985) by Elem Klimov, reports “Radio Svaboda”.

Andrei Kutilo’s film tells the story of modern Belarus through the personal stories of people who have faced repression, imprisonment, and life in a country where the ordinary human voice can become a reason for persecution. The director worked on the film for five years.

He sought to create a unique visual language for each character. The stories of these five people were meant to come together to form a kind of mosaic of the country.

Andrei Kutilo arrived at the Venice Film Festival with a large international team—Belarusians, Poles, Lithuanians, and Germans. At the official ceremony, the director and his team presented the festival director with a stack of letters from political prisoners. These are fifteen additional letters which, according to Kutilo, provide a better understanding of the reality in Belarus:


“If someone knows nothing about Belarus, after reading these 15 letters, they will certainly form an impression. They provide an emotional, intimate, and sociopolitical context for what is happening in Belarus today.”

“A letter is not just what’s written on paper”

Initially, Kutilo conceived the film specifically as a story based on correspondence. But as he worked on it, the situation changed: correspondence between political prisoners became restricted and was later effectively banned. Nevertheless, the director decided not to abandon the original format.

He began to use not only real letters but also texts based on conversations with people who had survived repression, whether they were still in Belarus or had already left the country.

“We managed to collect a large number of letters, and afterward I decided that we would retain the letter format but also incorporate people’s accounts. We conducted many conversations in the form of interviews, and then worked on how to fit them into the overall concept and format of the letters. A letter is not just what’s written on paper,” explains Kutilo.

For him, a letter has become more of a symbol of a person’s connection to those behind bars, to those who remained in Belarus, and to those who were forced to leave the country.

““We decided to preserve the format of the letters to give the film such an intimate character. You can’t say this is a straightforward political film. It is, first and foremost, a film about people’s fates, about emotions, and about how people are holding on in modern Belarus,” says the director.

Five People Instead of Thousands

Over the past six years, tens of thousands of people in Belarus have endured various forms of repression. Kutilo chose just five stories for the film. This is not an attempt to portray statistically “typical” Belarusians. The director says that, above all, he wanted to give a voice to people with different experiences and perspectives.

Among them is a man who is still in Belarus and is trying to avoid arrest. The story of Vitold Ashurka, who died in prison. A young woman, a student and artist, living in a women’s prison. Her story is based on drawings, diaries, and letters.

“First and foremost, I wanted to give people from Belarus a chance to be heard, to tell the story of Belarus from a different perspective. There are still people in Belarus trying to avoid detention and live under such conditions. Some are no longer with us, like Vitold, who died—we know he was tortured in prison. There’s the story of a young woman, a student, who is in a women’s prison and is painting a picture that reflects the perspective of a young artist, a creative person,” says Kutilo.

The animation took a year to create

The film uses animation, a subjective camera, and stories told almost exclusively through photographs and images on a computer monitor. In some scenes, the animation is combined with live-action documentary footage.


According to Kutilo, it took about a year to create approximately 20 minutes of animation for the film.

“We don’t use artificial intelligence—and that’s a matter of principle. It can’t yet handle all the details, everything you need. And everything is done by hand. That’s why it takes an incredibly long time,” says the director.

Part of the animation was based on drawings by one of the female characters, who was in prison. After her release, these drawings served as source material for illustrators, storyboard artists, and animators.

“She created a whole series of drawings, which the illustrators then used as a basis for developing the animation’s visual concept. Storyboard artists then step in to schematically translate what’s in your head onto the computer and into illustrations. Then the animators immediately get to work, setting the movement and so on,” Kutilo explains.

A Film for an Audience of Millions

Kutilo makes no secret of the fact that the film was originally conceived for more than just Belarusians. On the contrary, one of the main audiences consists of people who know very little or nothing at all about Belarus. After the premiere in Venice, he cites the example of an Italian woman who heard about Belarus for the first time thanks to this film.

“Yesterday at the premiere, an Italian woman heard about Belarus for the very first time. A whole new world opened up for her. She never knew that such a country existed or what was happening there. So I wouldn’t say this film was made exclusively for Belarusians. Rather, it’s for those who know very little about our country—or nothing at all,” says Kutilo.

After its festival premiere, the film will have a wider reach. Partners include Polish television, as well as ZDF in collaboration with ARTE. The film will be shown in Poland, Germany, and France. Another important partner is Deutsche Welle, thanks to which the film is set to be released in several languages and receive wide international distribution. With such partners, the film will reach an audience of millions, as the director hopes.

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