Courage

Belarus, August 2020. Alexander Lukashenko, who has already been in power for 26 years, is declared the winner of the presidential elections for the sixth time. Thousands of people demonstrate against this implausible victory, and every day the protests grow.

Pavel, Denis, and Maryna, all members of the Belarus Free Theater company in Minsk, followed these developments closely. Denis had demonstrated against the regime back in the 1990s and now doubts there’s any point in protesting. Maryna is worried about the future. Pavel is thinking of emigrating. They realize that they need to make sure their voices are heard on the streets as well as on the stage.

Combining discussions about the role of theater in a dictatorship, the actors’ own stories and strikingly well-shot scenes of the increasingly intense protests paint a multifaceted and alarming picture of life in Belarus. Courage, previously selected for the Berlinale, Visions du Réel and CPH:DOX, is a portrait of the courage of demonstrators willing to put their own liberty on the line, filtered through the gaze of three astute and sensitive theater practitioners.