29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (07.11-23.11.2025)
As women lead Belarus’s fight for freedom, a filmmaker in exile confronts fear and finds her voice.
How do you make a documentary about a revolution when you can’t be there? For Estonian-based filmmaker Volia Chaikouskaya, the 2020 Belarus uprising was not just news – it was personal. While thousands in Minsk rose up against the brutal regime of Alexander Lukashenko and rallied behind opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Volia felt the same pulse across borders. Unable to return home, she became both observer and participant, organising solidarity actions in Tallinn and gradually stepping into her own film as a subject.
At the heart of the story are three women – Sviatlana, Nadzeya, and Masha – whose husbands were jailed as political prisoners and who themselves emerged as central figures of the movement. Their fearless defiance against dictatorship mirrored Volia’s own struggle to break free from the inherited fear of silencing, repression, and exile.
Filmed over five years, this intimate work fuses collective history with personal awakening, charting both the resilience of Belarusian women and the filmmaker’s transformation into a voice that refuses to stand aside.
Marianna Kaat
29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (07.11-23.11.2025)
As women lead Belarus’s fight for freedom, a filmmaker in exile confronts fear and finds her voice.
How do you make a documentary about a revolution when you can’t be there? For Estonian-based filmmaker Volia Chaikouskaya, the 2020 Belarus uprising was not just news – it was personal. While thousands in Minsk rose up against the brutal regime of Alexander Lukashenko and rallied behind opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Volia felt the same pulse across borders. Unable to return home, she became both observer and participant, organising solidarity actions in Tallinn and gradually stepping into her own film as a subject. At the heart of the story are three women – Sviatlana, Nadzeya, and Masha – whose husbands were jailed as political prisoners and who themselves emerged as central figures of the movement. Their fearless defiance against dictatorship mirrored Volia’s own struggle to break free from the inherited fear of silencing, repression, and exile. Filmed over five years, this intimate work fuses collective history with personal awakening, charting both the resilience of Belarusian women and the filmmaker’s transformation into a voice that refuses to stand aside.
Marianna Kaat
As women lead Belarus’s fight for freedom, a filmmaker in exile confronts fear and finds her voice.
How do you make a documentary about a revolution when you can’t be there? For Estonian-based filmmaker Volia Chaikouskaya, the 2020 Belarus uprising was not just news – it was personal. While thousands in Minsk rose up against the brutal regime of Alexander Lukashenko and rallied behind opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Volia felt the same pulse across borders. Unable to return home, she became both observer and participant, organising solidarity actions in Tallinn and gradually stepping into her own film as a subject. At the heart of the story are three women – Sviatlana, Nadzeya, and Masha – whose husbands were jailed as political prisoners and who themselves emerged as central figures of the movement. Their fearless defiance against dictatorship mirrored Volia’s own struggle to break free from the inherited fear of silencing, repression, and exile. Filmed over five years, this intimate work fuses collective history with personal awakening, charting both the resilience of Belarusian women and the filmmaker’s transformation into a voice that refuses to stand aside.
Marianna Kaat
Info
Rating
-
Production year
2025
Global distributor
Cinephil
Local distributor
Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival MTÜ
In cinema
11/21/2025