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𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 | Mara (2022)
2022-12-08/19:00 - 21:00
It’s 2020 and Minsk, the capital city of Belarus, is overflowing with anti-government protests.
A dreamy figure – Mara – takes us on a journey alongside the protesting crowds. Mara’s symbolic presence is a stark contrast to the harsh reality of the street. There is a determination to Mara, but also a fragility – as if her persona reflects the collective mental state of the protesters witnessing their dream for freedom turn into a nightmare.
The film flips between esthetical dream images and real footage of police brutality. This is an essay about a communal nightmare, a nightmare which has bound a whole nation together.
Documentary essay; France, United Kingdom, 2022. Belarusian with English and Lithuanian subtitles, 59 min.
The film will be presented by Vilija Navickaitė, a PhD student at VU TSPMI, who is researching the protests in Belarus and preparing her dissertation on the topic “Our Hearts Demand Changes!” Individual Mechanisms of Belarusian People’s (Non-)Decision to Engage in Mass Protests in the Summer of 2020″ (supervisor prof. Ainė Ramonaitė). The presentation will be in English.
The screening will be followed by a postcard writing workshop for political prisoners in Belarus. The workshop will be led by international KMN volunteer Yulia Protas. The workshop will be held in English.
About the director:
Sasha’s work in film spans a variety of visual projects ranging from documentary to fashion and music videos to photography and curation. Her films have taken her across the world with her first award winning documentary ‘Salamanca’ (2015, 40 ́), premiering at IDFA 2015 and screening at HotDocs, Camden and a number of other festivals. Another recent feature of Sasha’s – ‘Quicksilver Chronicles’ (2019, 74 ́), which was shot in the USA, premiered at the Visions du Reel. Being exposed to both fiction and documentary film practises has helped Sasha merge her interests into one while working on the film Mara, integrating harsh reality and fairy tales.
PARTICIPATION AT THE EVENT IS FREE OF CHARGE
The Common People 2022 program examines the individual’s relationship with the environment and the landscape in which they live and work. We will look at the landscape as a factor generating social, political, and ecological meanings. The program’s films will reveal not only the beauty or issues of landscapes but also the contexts in which they exist, as well as their positive or negative influence on the individual and vice versa. Travelling from idyllic provincial landscapes to polluted metropolises, we will focus on historical layers of the environment, ecological and personal human tragedies, and social issues. We will try to understand how the relationship between man and space changes in the face of today’s challenges.
The project is curated by Karolis Žukas (Kitas Kinas) and Edvinas Grinkevičius (Kaunas Artists’ House).
Visual identity: Eglė Simonavičiūtė.
The project is financed by the Lithuanian Film Center and organized by Kaunas Artists’ House. Partners: platform Kitas Kinas and Kaunas Deaf Rehabilitation Centre.