Temptation

When the elderly documentarian Viktar Dashuk becomes ill and asks his doctor how long he has, his doctor thinks this is a stupid question. After all, he is no longer able to get his wife pregnant, so evolutionarily speaking he's long past his expiration date. For a moment, the filmmaker can't decide: should he die with dignity or go out with a fight? Then he starts writing love letters to his nurse and decides to make a film about himself, to ensure his own immortality through art. An important theme in Dashuk's personal piece is his home country of Belarus. In between black-and-white archive footage of the country long ago and more recent recordings of the political unrest taking place there, Dashuk's antagonist also appears, and he's also trying to make himself immortal. President Alexander Lukashenko has been ruling his country with an iron fist for decades, and many journalists, human rights activists and presidential candidates have paid the price. "Many people want to leave some trace behind," explains Dashuk. "So they build pyramids, palaces and monuments. They write books and make their last wills. They shoot films, gain power and start wars. The most horrible thing happens when the idea of immortality settles in the mind of a cruel ruler."