HANDBOOK

It’s August 2020. While in Minsk protests are mounting against Lukashenko’s re-election, Pavel Mozhar follows the developments in his homeland from his room in Berlin. Over these few days, around 7,000 protesters were arrested by the notorious OMON riot police.

Mozhar studied hundreds of witness statements on the internet and discovered there was a systemic approach to the oppression. He transforms his room into a studio where he stages re-enactments of witness testimonies by a “police officer” wearing black clothes and a balaclava, and four “detainees” dressed identically in shirts and jeans. The result is distressingly instructive. [IDFA 2021]

Pavel Mozhar was born in 1987 in Minsk and has lived in and around Berlin since the age of ten. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy & Economics at the University of Bayreuth (2009-2012). During this time, he was involved in student film projects and attended seminars at the Media Studies faculty. After graduation he had various internships and jobs in the film industry. In 2015 he started his Master’s degree in Directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, majoring in documentary forms.

KIRIK’s 2022 programs are supported by SAHA as part of the Sustainability Fund 2021-2022.