Yury Khashchavatski: Abel filming looks like circus

The response of the Belarusian propaganda to Viva Belarus! film is doomed to failure.

Famous film director Yury Khashchavatski spoke to charter97.org about the propaganda movie Abel.

“It's very funny. It's crap from the point of view of a film director, from a historical or other point of view. Extras were not allowed to shout 'Long live Belarus'. It turns out that the authorities cannot but lie even when they try to make a film about the post-election protests. The only moment I liked was when a pyrotechnician threw a Molotov cocktail to the shield. The rest is drivel,” the director thinks.

Yury Khashchavatski notes he didn't see national white-red-white flags during the shooting.

“The ruler likes neither white-red-white flags nor the slogan 'Long live Belarus'. They even cannot show opposition activists as they are. The number of extras was tens times less than the real number of protesters. There were 200 or 300 people. They were jumping trying to warm up. Only three people were running and pretending to fight. On the one hand, it looks like a circus and an amatour performance, but on the other hand it's a dead end. But I will watch the movie,” he said ironically.

We remind protests scenes for the propaganda film Abel were shot yesterday in Minsk. Students of Minsk's universities worked as extras. The scenes were shot on Independence Square at night. The filming crew forbid actors to chant “Long live Belarus”.

The Belarusian Ministry of Culture and Lukashenka's Administration decided last year to shoot the project “Square of Love” (Abel) that is supposed to become the official response to the movie Viva Belarus! by Krzysztof Lukaszewicz on Franak Viachorka's script.