«Above the sky» was watched by more than 40 000 people for three days

Out full-length version of the film project "Above the Sky" on the Internet has revolutionized the Belarusian film distribution system, says writer Andrew Kureichik.

The movie aimed at raising HIV/AIDS awareness was ordered and funded by the UNDP and positioned as the first Belarusian youth series. However, the initial plans haven’t been implemented.

The series writer Andrej Kurejchyk said that the UNDP commissioned 8-episode series. He assures that the project team managed to shoot all the necessary material, but then was suspended at the editing stage and the team managed to “save” only the small piece of their work.

Andrej Kurejchyk considers his and team’s dismissal to be connected to censorship on state TV. The series was planned to be aired by Belarusian State TV and Radio Company (Belteleradiocompany).

The conflict started when the UNDP representatives visited Belteleradiocompany. Mr. Kurejchyk supposes that the officials from Belteleradiocompany recognized the series to be “disloyal” as some of the movie team members are known as persons not supporting the current government. Yet, the project team decided that the political censorship will not be the decisive factor.

“Though the movie does not touch upon politics, it still covers acute social issues: from anti-Western rhetoric of some officials, AIDS, alcoholism and generation gap to the youth riot against hoi polloi life in the country,” says Kurejchyk.

According to him, this was the reason for forcing them to leave the project as their professionalism remained unquestioned: the UNDP paid their wages as it was agreed upon.

The continuation of the story was rapid and unpredictable as Andrej Kurejchyk decided to upload the director-cut of the movie on YouTube. This was done on June 8.

The movie was watched around 40,000 times during the weekend. Andrej Kurejchyk said that his movie was viewed more times during a single weekend than all Belarusian-shot movies during the whole 2011.

The UNDP office in Belarus is not happy with such move and officially reports that Mr. Kurejchyk violated the terms of the contract as the final product was full-length film but not the commissioned series. Mr. Kurejchy is also accused of misappropriating of the shot materials which are the property of the UNDP. The UNDP representatives also report that due to condition of the $1mln grant, the series must be aired on state-owned TV channels so millions may watch it.

Now editing team is making the 8-episode series, 44 minutes each, out of the ‘unprocessed’ footage.

However, Mr. Kurejchyk countered the accusations by saying that the Belarusian UNDP officers will never admit the fact of political censorship. The film — according to Mr. Kurejchyk — perfectly corresponds to the main condition for the grant: it raises awareness of HIV and AIDS. Furthermore, the film is the authors’ viewpoint and cannot be anyhow altered or censored, he says.

But while Mr. Kurejchyk addresses Antonius Broek — the representative of the UNDP in Belarus asking him to allow airing the director-cut version of the film and the UNDP blames Mr. Kurejchyk for stealing the movie and contract violation, anyone may watch the movie on YouTube.