Provinziale awards, phot. by kulturfeste.de
Guests, a documentary made by prominent Belarusian film director Andrey Kutsila for Belsat TV, will be shown at the opening of Provinziale film festival in Germany’s Eberswalde.
“After watching 913 films from 70 countries, the program committee of the 13th Film Festival in Eberswalde finally outlined the international competition program. We are pleased to inform you that your movie Guests was selected to participate in the competition program of documentary films of the 13th Film Festival in Eberswalde. Congratulations! The film Guests will open the festival,” its organizers wrote to Belsat.
The festival is to kick off on October 1. The winner in the category “Best Documentary” will receive €4,000 award.
The movie tells the story of a shelter organised by Alyaksei Shchadrou, a former prisoner who now continues the mission of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Working as an ambulance man he got to know that Belarusian first aid teams happened to throw homeless people out of medical cars soon after they had to pick them up.
Once in prison, Alyaksei found himself unwanted too. The time behind bars changed the former paramedic’s outlook on life. After his release he settled in the Alyaksandrauka village (Shchuchyn district) where he organised unofficial asylum —he started to admit poor, disabled people, take care of them, help them obtain reissued passports, and enable them to return to a normal way of life.
Unfortunately, the local authorities have never been appreciative of his initiative. From the very beginning they tried to force Alyaksei to close the shelter. In search of spiritual help, the man decided to go to Italy…
In 2015, ‘Guests’ was recognized the best documentary at the International Film Festival ‘Listapad’ (Belarus).
belsat.eu
