About the films: 

"I Need The Handshakes"

Time seems to have come to a standstill in this tiny Belarusian village. In a house off the beaten track, a feeble old woman takes care of her daughter—who has been paralyzed since birth—all on her own. She can’t count on state support, and her grandchildren rarely visit. Tania, trapped inside the shell of her body and completely reliant on her mother, finds comfort by creating extremely moving poems and drawings. Who better to understand what loneliness is, what it means to long for physical and spiritual intimacy? Andrei Kutsila, one of Belarus’s most talented documentary filmmakers, beautifully tells a story of boundless love, loneliness, and the pain of existence that both protagonists have to face.

Zuzanna Połynko

"Forced Retirement"

Produced literally just a few days after the outbreak of mass protests in Belarus, the film features the story of a well-known Belarusian TV journalist. Andrei Kutsila watches her in the hospital, where she ended up after being beaten by the police during a demonstration against the rigged elections. Why, with so much to lose, did she decide to risk her position, and how does she envision the future? 

Konrad Wirkowski