“A Lesson of Belarusian” with participation of Stoppard held in London :: Charter'97 :: News

On Tuesday in London office of the human rights organisation Amnesty International in the framework of the annual festival organised by “Human Rights Watch” a screening of “A Lesson of Belarusian” by A Polish filmmaker Miroslaw Dembinski. The film has already received a number of awards at prestigious film festivals. Its London screening is timed to the anniversary of mass protest rallies in Minsk in March last year after presidential elections.

The film tells about young opposition activists in Belarus and about those who had been forced to leave it because of their political believes.

Before the screening a well-known British playwright Tom Stoppard addressed the audience.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard is concerned over events in Belarus. As said by him, the most important for a normal development of any country is freedom of speech and expression, BBCRussian.com informs.

How the protagonist was found

The protagonist of the film is a young opposition activist Franak Vyachorka. However, as said by him, it was a coincidence.

A Polish filming crew arrived to one of Minsk humanities lyceums where Franak was studying.

The lyceum, which is officially closed, was one of the last educational institutions with Belarusian language of instruction.

“There was time when our lyceum went underground. Education continued only thanks to enthusiasm of professors, who are not indifferent to our language and traditions,” Franak Vyachorka said. “Over the 12 years of his rule Lukashenka closed about 400 schools with Belarusian language of instruction all over the country”.

A filmmaker Miroslaw Dembinski learnt that Franak is a political activist and a son of a well-known Belarusian oppositionist, offered Franak to become a protagonist of the film.

Franak agreed, but he offered to tell not only about the lyceum, but about the life of Belarusian youth in general.

“I was simply continuing my usual work, and a filming crew was following me everywhere, to events connected with the election campaign, to different youth meetings,” Franak said.

“Grave” Crimes

Despite of his political activism, today Franak Vyachorka is studying in the state university and even is paid a bursary. He is convinced that the regime allowed him to enter the university for fear of a reaction.

“However, nothing stops them from arresting me, once in two-tree weeks,” he said.

The longest time in a police department for Franak Vyachorka was five hours.

His father had been tried many times on administrative charges and sentenced to up to 15 days of imprisonment, and three times under criminal charges.

Franak’s family, like families of many oppositionists, experiences pressure of the regime. However, the 19-year-old activist is positive that it is impossible to recede or leave Belarus, as the changes wouldn’t come soon in this case.

“No Dissent”

Franak believes that the film “A Lesson of Belarusian” should be timed not only to March events of the last year, but dedicated to March in general, as the country marks Freedom Day in March.

He told that every year in the run-up to the holiday Belarusian authorities under different pretexts detain opposition leaders to prevent mass rallies in the streets of the city.

The Belarusian authorities know almost each oppositionist, but they are not going to go underground. If that would happen, they would be called dissenters, which is a different kind of social activity.

“Lukashenka fears Freedom Day most of all,” Franak Vyachorka believes. “As soon as Belarus would obtain real independence, his epoch would come to an end”.