PÖFF: Letters from the Silenced Country

PÖFF30 | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival | 6-22 november 2026 | Cinema Artis

Each story reveals a distinct experience of repression. A father hides from surveillance to avoid arrest and separation from his daughter. A former criminal investigator chooses to leave the system, flees Belarus, and in exile in Poland faces repeated interrogations and a growing sense of deadlock and powerlessness. Kasia, a young student sentenced for protesting, survives through drawing, using her art to preserve a sense of self and to express what cannot be openly said. We also meet 50-year-old Vitold, whose story unfolds through photographs sent by a friend from home – carefully selected fragments of a world beyond the prison walls, offering him moments of freedom while exploring not only what can be seen, but also what remains unseen. Combining observational footage, archival and found materials, testimonies, and animation based on drawings created in confinement, the film transforms private correspondence into a cinematic space of intimacy, dignity, and reflection, raising questions about sacrifice, solidarity, and the human cost of resistance in a silenced country.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in the Venice Open – Out of Competition section.