Letters From the Silenced Country

Belarus has endured daily repression for 30 years under the regime of dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko. In Letters from the Silenced Country, a man says, “Belarus is getting very quiet, it is drowning under the ice.”

Using footage of protests being suppressed, readings from letters by political prisoners to their loved ones, surveillance camera recordings, and animated images based on drawings made in prison, this film highlights the experiences of people who have endured the repression first-hand.

Many of the political prisoners were sentenced to years in prison after demonstrating in 2020 against the rigged presidential elections. Alongside their stories, we hear from a man who has gone into hiding for fear of arrest and a former investigative officer who fled to Poland and no longer wants to be part of the regime. Taken together, the testimonies offer a compelling picture of the price paid by those who resist oppression and refuse to give up imagining a life in freedom.