Belarus: Last News

Naman Ramachandran The first trailer has been unveiled for “Walls” (“Mur”), actor-turned-filmmaker Kasia Smutniak’s directorial debut that will world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to a mass exodus of refugees seeking asylum across Europe. Among the European countries offering aid and refuge, Poland was particularly generous but the country had also simultaneously commenced the construction of Europe’s most expensive wall along its entire border with Belarus to deter further refugees from entering.

EXCLUSIVE: Big World Pictures has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights from Paris-based sales firm Charades to Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature, Disco Boy.

Marta Balaga It was a good day for female filmmakers – and documentaries – at Locarno Pro, with “Mother Vera” by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson winning the Creativity Media First Look Award on Sunday at Locarno’s pix-in-post competition, dedicated this year to the U.K. Dedicated to a young Orthodox nun, “Mother Vera” shows her turbulent past and fragile future as she faces inner conflict after 20 years as a monastic.

Belarusian-set pic Mother Vera has picked up Locarno’s Creativity Media First Look Award, the biggest prize handed out by the festival’s industry section. 

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Wimbledon is officially underway — and it’s already proving to be a tournament you don’t want to miss. Reigning champion Novak Djokovic has the chance to capture his fifth Wimbledon title in a row, which would continue his winning streak as an all-time leader in the men’s Grand Slam titles. However, the next two weeks of play, which will conclude with the men’s singles final on July 16, could also see Djovkovic dethroned by top-seed players Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedevev or Casper Ruud. On the women’s side, eyes will be on Iga Swiatek, seeded No. 1 on the women’s bracket, who will be up against Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina. The women’s singles final will take place on July 15.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Vice News has released the trailer for its documentary “Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story,” which will be showing at Karlovy Vary Film Festival next week. The film had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival earlier in June and Nate Pommer, who directed alongside Eric Weinrib, was awarded a special jury mention. The jury said the film was being recognized “for the enduring use of art as a weapon against cant and authoritarianism.” The jury added: “We are grateful to the director for translating Gogol Bordello’s rebellious joy and rage at remaining human and vibrant in the face of everything time has thrown in its path.”

News networks continued to focus on the instability in Russia, as Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time since a failed rebellion led by Wagner Group mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin.

Vladimir Putin has said he is confident of being able to implement future plans in the war in Ukraine despite the Wagner rebellion. The leader broke his silence following the extraordinary events in Russia which seen armed mercenaries advancing on Moscow.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has been banished from Russia after Vladimir Putin dropped charges against him.

The head of Wagner force said he has told his troops to stop their march on Moscow and instead withdraw to their field camps in Ukraine in a bid to avoid shedding Russian blood.

The head of the Wagner force said he has ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine to avoid shedding Russian blood.

An expert has warned that infighting between the military and Vladimir Putin could be the beginning of the end of the Russian warmonger.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Lovers of ’80s music in the synth-pop and post-punk genres rejoiced Saturday as a stuffed roster including Iggy Pop, Gang of Four, Love and Rockets, Echo and the Bunnymen and the Human League performed at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena. The festival had an unexpected second evening of performances on Sunday after lightning cut short Saturday night’s show before Siouxsie was able to play. It’s not an easy job to give the faithful fans what they want while avoiding sounding like a Totally ’80s greatest hits sampler. Most of the attendees had four decades of hearing these bands under their studded belts, recognizing many of the songs from the very first jangly chord. Though many of the acts have released new music in the ensuing 40 or so years, the audience wasn’t really there to make new discoveries, and the bands obliged with tight sets heavy on MTV staples.

Christopher Vourlias With Jonathan Glazer’s Auschwitz-set Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” competing for the Palme d’Or and a host of Polish producers bringing buzzy upcoming projects to the Marché du Film, the Polish industry should again have Cannes talking. Here’s a rundown of some of the highlights: The Zone of Interest(Competition)Director: Jonathan GlazerProducers: James Wilson, Ewa Puszczyńska (JW Films, Extreme Emotions)Sales: A24The veteran British filmmaker’s first film in nearly a decade, which will compete for the Palme d’Or, is a Holocaust drama loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis that’s sure to be among the festival’s most talked-about films.

Films Boutique has closed multiple territory deals on Agnieszka Holland’s “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland. The film has been sold to Condor (France), September Films (Benelux), Movies Inspired (Italy), Leopardo Filmes (Portugal), MCF Megacom (former Yugoslavia), Kino Swiat (Poland) and AQS (Czech Rep./Slovakia). “The Green Border” tells the story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko, who opened the country’s doors to migrants as a back door to enter the EU.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off a successful collaboration on “Charlatan,” Films Boutique has boarded Agnieszka Holland’s next film “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland. Now in post production, “The Green Border” tells the fateful story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by President Lukaschenko opening doors to migrants in Belarus as a back door to enter the EU.  The screenplay, penned by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk, is inspired by real events. Research for the film included hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, borderland residents, activists and experts.

SPOILER ALERT: The following story reveals major plot points from tonight’s FBI and FBI: International crossover event on CBS.

Motherland, a “dark and monumental” film about neo-nationalism in Belarus, earned the top prize tonight at the prestigious CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen.

Lise Pedersen The top Dox:Award at CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen documentary festival, has gone to “Motherland” by Ukrainian-Belarussian director Alexander Mihalkovich (“My Granny From Mars”) and Ukrainian director Hanna Badziaka. Described by Variety as “an ominous portrait of the oppressive culture of cruelty in post-Soviet Belarus,” the film follows Svetlana, whose son died during his military service as the result of violent abuse, in her quest to expose and prosecute those responsible for his death. Dedicating the award to “all the Ukrainians fighting Russian aggression and to Belarussian political prisoners,” the directing duo thanked all those who helped them make the film, in particular the protagonists, “who were brave to stand in front of the camera and patient with us as it was a long journey of four years.”

Elena Rybakina is the champion!

Jessica Kiang The very first words in the Belarusian national anthem, which is being sung devoutly at an army graduation ceremony as “Motherland” begins, are “We Belarusians are peaceful people.” It does not take long for the irony to bite. Grave skies heavy with snow frame the stark beauty of Siarhiej Kanaplianik’s camerawork, as Hanna Badziaka and Alexander Mihalkovich’s handsome, bitter film outlines something close to the inverse of that ideal: a culture of brutality, bullying and complicity that is fostered in the Belarusian military, and then seeps like the cold into the very bones of civilian society.   Dedovshchina, as some terse titles explain, translates to the benign-sounding “rule of Grandads.” But it describes a systematic code of psychological and physical abuse visited on new conscripts by their longer-serving colleagues, that the Belarusian military establishment, like that of other former Soviet countries, inherited from the Russian army. Most of the time, dedovshschina can be characterized as a particularly violent and humiliating form of ritual hazing, designed to break any spirit of independence or rebellion in newcomers. And having understood that conformity is their best survival tactic (even at that first graduation ceremony, onlookers remark that they cannot pick their own sons out of the lineup: “They kind of all look the same”), last season’s victims become the next cycle’s perpetrators, before they matriculate back into the general population, carrying with them the harsh lessons they’ve learned about might being right, and submission to authority being an inescapable fact of life.