An autocratic system of violence is destroying the individual, the “self” in Belarus.
When Filmmaker/Journalist Hanna Badziaka and Filmmaker/Former Soldier Alexander Mihalkovich began to unravel the long-term consequences of autocratic and institutional violence within the Belarus military, they found themselves returning to a central question: could the hierarchal cycle of an embedded military system that uses violence as a weapon against its own recruits be broken? A torturously perverse form of initiation, with roots in the traditions of the Soviet Army and originally implemented by recruited ex-convicts who brought criminal rules into the military, has released a culture of violence out onto the streets of Belarus: After serving their mandated military service, soldiers return to civilian life broken, if they haven’t died first at the hands of their commanding officers.
In MOTHERLAND, three unique perspectives emerge from the culture of violence to shatter the cycle: the Mothers, the Soldiers, and the Activists. Confronting the concepts of responsibility, fear, loss, and sorrow as they search for the cycle’s starting point, Badziaka and Mihalkovich call for the sun to set on this vestige of the Soviet era as they hold a mirror to our world most of us would rather not see.
Cast: Svetlana, Nikita
Director: Alexander Mihalkovich,Hanna Badziaka
Writer: Alexander Mihalkovich, Hanna Badziaka
Producers: Mario Adamson
Co-Producers: Alexander Mihalkovich, Anita Norfolk
Distributor: Lucky Dogs
Format: Documentary
Status: Production
Length: 90 min
Languages: Belarussian
Country of origin: Sweden, Ukraine, Norway
Supported by:
Svenska Filminstitutet
SVT
IDFA Bertha Fund
B2B DOC
Docs Up Fund
International Media Support
Fritt Ord Foundation
Vestnorsk Filmsenter
Norwegian Film Institute
In co-production with:
Folk Film
Voka Film