On the occasion of the Night of the Museums on June 27 we bring you a documentary that opened the Verzió Film Festival in 2014:
DANGEROUS ACTS: starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus
directed by Madeleine Sackler, documentary, 76 min, 2013
(Belarusian, English, Russian, with English and Hungarian subtitles)
Creating provocative theater carries great personal risks: emotional, financial and artistic. For the members of the Belarus Free Theater, there are additional risks: censorship, imprisonment, and exile. When authorities forbid critical examinations of politics, suicide, sexuality, and alcoholism, the Free Theater responds by injecting these taboos into performances that are staged underground. But flaunting government censorship and repression comes at some considerable price. Members of the company have been beaten, fired from other jobs, and threatened with rape. Even being an audience member requires some serious subterfuge. Comprised of smuggled footage and uncensored interviews, the film goes behind the scenes with the acclaimed troupe of imaginative and subversive performers. The documentary picks up the story in 2010, with the state crackdown on dissenters sixteen years after Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko takes power. In the aftermath of a dubious presidential election in 2012, the state secret services continue to target the Free Theater, forcing its members to make a desperate choice: flee the country and continue to work in exile, or stay and risk imprisonment.
To watch the film for free follow these simple steps:
1. Visit watch.verzio.org
2. Click the button "Rent" (until June 27 you will see here "Coming soon"
3. Click "Apply promo code" and enter: MuseumsNight2020
You can play the film all day on June 27. Your code is valid for 24 hours. Enjoy the movie!
For more English-friendly programs on this day, check out the spectacular online program series of Blinken OSA Archive here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/557035734979971/