Kalinovski Square

Stoplukafilm presents

a film by Yury Khashchevatskiy

Hold them back!

Hold them back!

Mighty God! Lord of the Universe!

Of huge suns and small hearts

over Belarus, quiet and cordial,

spill rays of your glory!

Help us in our work, routine and plain

for daily bread,

for native land

let us have in our truth and future

respect, power and grandeur faith

Shame! Shame!

They tried to hold the crowd back, but failed.

People managed to break through.

The first thing that they did,

was kick out the cameraman of state owned television channels.

Then they explained why they had done it.

They've held their so called election.

They lied, pressured us, manipulated,

then announced their figures.

We are laughing at these figures.

Shame! Shame!

President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko

has been troubled by enemies for many years.

These troubles, penetrating his delicate psyche,

(but what can you do? It's all a part of the job),

generate problems that he cannot examine civilly, he has to sink his teeth into them.

That distracts from the most important, the thoughts about happiness of the people.

See! He is thinking about it now.

After all, he himself confesses that he is always thinking about it.

Yes! Great idea! After all, it really is that simple.

The president will take office for the third time.

and nation wide happiness shall come!

According to the plan,

it should have happened on October Square, the main square of Minsk.

Everything was supposed to be organized according to protocol and the state colors:

green chairs for state officials,

and the red carpet and the office for the president.

The trouble was that the square turned out to be occupied!

Kalinovski Square

Minsk 19.03.2006 The evening after presidential elections

That evening, immediately following the elections,

those who knew how they, their family, friends and co workers have voted,

came to the square.

Many were sure of victory.

But the facts they were convinced of, by no means agreed with the official results.

Motherland! Freedom! Ugly Luka out!

The official figures said Alexander Lukashenko

would rule the country for another 5 years. At the very least.

You see who governs us?

We are tired of 12 years of arbitrariness in our country.

The square was mainly full of young people.

Don't wait, we're sick of waiting.

Jeans everywhere: this is their symbol of freedom.

I learned that from Dasha, a university student.

Freedom!

I knew for sure, Dasha was somewhere there,

but it was impossible to find her in the ocean of people.

Dasha

I saw her again, early in the morning,

when she came out of jail and dropped in to get warm.

- Are you sensitive to cold? - Yeah.

- Why the hell did you go to the square in such a cold?

So many days, so many nights.

I came to see,

because I didn't believe that anyone would come.

Our people, we are so tolerant, we all are so absolutely calm.

Especially the people in the provinces.

They don't know what's going on. They don't really care.

People in the provinces, the most reliable voters.

Dasha could not even imagine

how much you need to care about national happiness

in order to raise your people to be that way.

Voters listen to the Radio

What are you doing here? What are you filming?

Haven't got anything else to do?

- What makes you so angry? - I am angry because of my life.

Trying and failing to make ends meet every month.

I am cleaning and laundering all the time.

No one helps me.

Only pensioners and single women live here.

The whole street. There's only one old man, and he is disabled.

Now we have no electricity and no water.

What can I do? Who should I complain to?

I wrote a letter. You think Lukashenko would get it?

Although he says he helps farmers, but nothing happens.

No visitors, no promises.

- That's not true! You were promised to get natural gas!

Who the hell needs gas! We have enough wood.

Why spend money on gas!

An oven would cost 1,500 dollars.

I checked, a gas oven in our store. It costs 600,000 rubles.

I need three months of not buying anything to get it.

I was extremely surprised.

It turns out, there is an opposition village in Belarus,

where people are not happy with the government.

Our pensions are small.

We have never received a kopeck from anyone.

No help from the state either.

No one helps them.

But every house in this village is provided with the radio box,

with only one state run channel.

People call it a "chatterbox". The radio works without a hitch.

Every day it informs listeners about our success

and about poor life in Ukraine, Lithuania

and other countries with democrats in power.

They will try to make it here, this fucking democracy.

- You don't need democracy? - Why the hell do we need it?

- And what is it that you need? - Nothing. We need peace. That's all.

What about a telephone?

- And a telephone. Yes, of course, we need it too.

- But it's not Lukashenko's fault. - He doesn't know?

- Who knows? Who writes to him? We are illiterate. We don't write to him.

I can't even get a phone line.

I've been on the waiting list for 18 years already.

- Why can't they help? - No resources. This is our situation.

But I'll vote both hands for Lukashenko when needed.

No light, no water, and still for Lukashenko?

Yes, for Lukashenko! I am for Lukashenko!

I love him, he is fair. There is no one to help him!

Let him be our -how do you call it- till he dies!

We've never had and will never have such life as we do now.

- You mean, good life? - Of course, it is good!

Only here in the village they don't care about us, it's a mass here.

What a paradox! Having listened to the "chatterbox",

they really believe that life is good everywhere in the country

except in their own village.

However, would they like to live like in Europe, or America?

Why the fuck would we need America!

Yes, it was an opposition village.

However, it was not in opposition to the authorities,

but in opposition to everything new and unclear.

We were filming till late evening.

We didn't want to leave, even for America.

Zhenya, come get your picture taken!

People who live here are really wonderful people.

They are solid and hardworking,

they work on their plot of land and restore the ruined church.

They hear only the radio, and, when they have electricity,

they watch Belarusian TV.

Voters watch TV

In the beginning of his rule, the president realized

that a TV set is electronic equipment designed for growing the right kind of voters.

For over 10 years Lukashenko has been on TV.

On all channels, and only him.

This is a record from the archives.

Today we have more channels,

and, correspondently, even more of Lukashenko.

And only he explains everything to the voters:

about us and about the notorious West.

I traveled all over the world, I saw Europe,

everything is crammed, smoky, everything is dirty,

people elbow one another, and push one another.

Life is hard for people there!

And here, in the center of this chaos, the soul is rejoicing!

Stinking little newspapers that keep the soul from rejoicing,

writing not about what they need to, but about what they want to.

Once they even came out with blank spots.

That's when they tried to publish a prohibited report about corruption on the president's team!

Then, 10 years ago those insolent shitheads organized him a huge scandal.

Alexander Grigoryevich liked to make up his own scandals.

Maybe that's why he decided to simply shut down

the independent press and demonstrate what a real scandal is.

The only independent newspaper in the country

is called Narodnaya Volya (The People's Will).

They had no time to shut it down before the elections.

But they banned its sale and subscription.

Smart!

For you to appreciate it I used a candid camera.

- Do you have Narodnaya Volya? - We don't have it around here.

- Why is that? - It's a forbidden newspaper!

- Why? - It's forbidden here.

Sorry!

- Would you please give me Narodnaya Volya? - Where can I get it from?

- What? - Where can I get it from?

- You mean you don't have it? - Of course not.

- Do you have Narodnaya Volya? - We never get Narodnaya Volya.

Where can I get it?

That's how the wrong, harmful point of view disappeared from Belarusian homes.

The era of absolute clarity has set in.

Clarity spread over all state TV channels.

I like channel surfing.

The main world news today...

...the only playing president in the world:

I need to train more.

The first gas torch was lit by the president.

Yes, gas is good.

The sight was enthralling.

The president himself tested biggest truck in the world!

The president visited a long wall,

where sylvinite beds are cut with a huge miller.

I agree, all presidents like programs about themselves!

But our president has a rare gift:

quotes that make it impossible to mix him up with anyone else.

Take a look!

We hardly have any women's business suits,

and, in general, business clothing, in our markets.

What!? No good clothes for women?