– BERLINALE 2026: Against the backdrop of ongoing repression at home, five Belarusian projects have been presented as both cinematic works and acts of cultural resistance
Iuliia Mamaeva (left) and Liza Chakanava during their pitch for Kupala Night (© Pasha Kritchko)
As the European Film Market (EFM, 12-18 February) unfolds across Berlin, a quieter but politically charged showcase took place at CinemaxX’s Studio Babelsberg lounge on 14 February. Organised by the Belarusian Independent Film Academy (BIFA), the BIFA Work in Progress session presented five fiction and documentary projects by Belarusian filmmakers working in exile, all seeking co-producers, partners and funding in an increasingly complex European landscape.
Moderated by Cineuropa’s Davide Abbatescianni, the two-hour session positioned the selected works not simply as films in development, but as urgent testimonies shaped by displacement, censorship and the long shadow of the 2020 protests in Belarus.
Established in exile in 2022, BIFA operates as a non-governmental platform supporting independent Belarusian filmmakers forced to relocate across Europe. Its Berlin showcase is designed to connect them with international partners and help secure the structural backing that is often inaccessible at home.
Below we take a look at the five projects, although it is worth noting that an additional one was pitched without publicly disclosed credits, underlining the sensitive conditions in which some Belarusian filmmakers continue to operate.
Kupala Night – Liza Chakanava (Czech Republic)
Kupala Night stands out for its tonal ambition. Currently in early development, with €5,000 confirmed against a slim €200,000 total budget, the magical-realist comedy follows Yana, a Belarusian immigrant in Prague who, after forgetting her house keys on Kupala Night, drifts through a chaotic odyssey of bars, friends, ghosts and time slips. Structured as an episodic, multi-perspective narrative, the film blends urban realism with Slavic mythology as Yana confronts the temptation to retreat into a pre-2020 past. Liza Chakanava and producer Iuliia Mamaeva (Echo Stories) are seeking co-producers, and development or production financing. The project’s hybrid tone – oscillating between comedy, folklore and diasporic melancholy – reflects a generation negotiating identity between exile and memory.
Small Talk – Siarhei Kavaliou (Belarus/Lithuania/Poland)
Small Talk adopts a quieter register. Positioned between documentary and drama, and currently in early development with €6,000 secured out of a €150,000 budget, the road movie follows six-year-old Mikut, raised by his parents in an almost extinct language. Travelling across post-Soviet borderlands, he meets elderly speakers of the language whose lives embody decades of imposed silence. Siarhei Kavaliou is searching for a screenwriter, co-producer, cinematographer and editor, with the script in progress. The project’s thematic spine – linguistic survival against centralised ideologies – resonates beyond Belarus, touching on broader European debates around minority cultures and historical erasure. Its cross-border set-up already signals a potential Baltic and Central European co-production trajectory.
From the Heart to the Sun – Andrei Kashperski (Poland)
Defined by a more confrontational energy, and boasting a completed script and a significantly higher projected budget of €850,000, this drama with dark-comedic undertones centres on Boar, a skinhead biker who receives the heart of an openly gay man after a crash. Rejected by his neo-Nazi peers and even by his religious parents, Boar spirals into absurdity, contemplating replacing the “gay heart” with that of a wild boar roaming central Warsaw. The provocative premise uses grotesque satire to interrogate toxic masculinity, nationalism and the politics of the body. Andrei Kashperski and producer Egor Efimov are seeking producers, co-producers and funds, positioning the film within Poland’s dynamic but polarised funding environment. This is arguably the most market-orientated project on the slate in terms of scale, yet it retains a strong arthouse edge.
Redhead Squirrel – anonymous author, Uliana Shargaeva (Poland)
Rooted more directly in contemporary repression, Redhead Squirrel is a dramedy based on a true story. Currently in development with €9,000 confirmed of a €250,000 budget, the film follows a 36-year-old surgeon and former political prisoner who, after inadvertently helping a pregnant 19-year-old escape arrest, must flee Belarus herself. The two women attempt to cross the “green border” into Poland, relying on a volatile smuggler. Blending tension with subtle comedic touches, the film explores solidarity under authoritarian pressure and the fragility of newly regained freedom. Uliana Shargaeva is seeking funding, a lead producer and co-production partners. Its contained scale and topical relevance could appeal to regional funds and broadcasters attentive to Eastern European human-rights narratives.
Miss of the East – Jana Shostak (Poland)
Miss of the East is a documentary-dramedy currently in development with a €110,000 budget. Jana Shostak, a Belarusian-Polish artist, turns the camera on herself as she infiltrates beauty pageants as an artistic intervention aimed at exposing patriarchy. As revolution and war unfold across Belarus’s eastern border, her dual existence – activist by day, pageant contestant by night – becomes an absurdist performance in its own right. Labelled an extremist for her public “Minute of Scream for Belarus”, Shostak questions whether art can effect tangible political change. The project is seeking producers and co-producers, and positions itself within a European tradition of performative documentary that merges activism and self-reflexivity.
