When: Tuesday, 15. December 2009 15.00
Where: Vilnius, Human Rights House, Latako 3
Host: United Center of Initiatives for Belarus (JuBIC)
Contact: Tomas Tomilinas (jubicc@gmail.com, uztaika@gmail.com / +370 686 27469)
“Visa curtain” is a problem which hits people’s lives painfully on both sides of the border. It tears families apart, destroys economies and communities. It is extremely visible in the Belarusian-Lithuanian borderland, alongside an EU frontier which has recently emerged where it had never been before.
The border has cut up the historically multicultural and multilingual Vilnius region, famous for its openness and tolerance: the best illustration of it being a chapel in Rakai with two altars – one for Catholics, another for Orthodox.
Stories of borderland residents and a Lithuanian university alumna from Belarus who faced a lot of barriers to her freedom of mobility, dramatic examples from a divided, between Lithuania and Belarus, village of Rakai, expert opinions and official statements – the material for everyone to draw their own conclusions about the situation on the eastern border of Lithuania, separating free united Europe and the still-authoritarian Belarus.
The discussion after the screening together with the movie authors will be aimed to highlight real winners and losers of the current situation. Democracy and human rights promotion would hardly be among the winners. And a question still remains: something has to be done differently in cabinets of Vilnius and Brussels.
Languages of the documentary and discussion – English / Belarusian (subtitles/interpretation).
Duration – 23 min. (documentary) + discussion (up to 1 hour).
Target audience – EU public interested in a development of cooperation issues and a Union’s true openness to its neighbours.
The film was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania and BELSAT TV.
