What would Alice's story be if she went to Minsk during a demonstration in August 2020 instead of the other side of the mirror? The film by Sasha Kulak, shot in the poetics of a dream, is a very personal story of Belarusian protests, a time of hope and social unity, when everything seemed possible. The otherworldly images of the protests in which the film's author takes part are accompanied by stylized, surreal scenes of a performance. When the ruthless reaction of the police and the army brutally crush the dream of freedom, all that remains is to wait for the intervention of the Queen of Hearts. The Belarusian dream turns into a nightmare, and vague dreams into particularly painful testimonies of persecution and torture.

Konrad Wirkowski