Volha Nikalaychyk’s film “Torture in Belarus. Apocalypse” gathered more than a hundred people and told the audience about the torture, humiliation, abuse and human rights violations by law enforcement officials and representatives of various law enforcement agencies. A number of stories of political and social activists, who shared their experiences of their relations with the Belarusian security forces, are collected in the plot. The ex-presidential candidate in the 2010 election Ales Mikhalevich told those who were present how he was humiliated in the KGB detention center, how he was forced to sign an agreement on cooperation with the KGB , and then had to leave Belarus, seeking for political asylum in the Czech Republic. Belarusian human rights defender Pavel Levinau was arrested after the blast in the Minsk metro in April 2011, so he described the aggressive behavior of law enforcement officials, who threatened to accuse him of organizing a terrorist attack. Also the story of the youth activist Andrei Molchan, who was brutally beaten by police for being out in the center of Minsk with a white-red-white national flag of Belarus, was presented in the film. Ukrainian FEMEN activists told the audience about torture and humiliation, which they faced after the performance near the KGB building in Minsk.

Discussion with Volha Nikalaychyk, the director of the film, was organized via Skype, and in the hall there were Siarhei Ustinau, Valiantsina Alinevich, mother of the political prisoner Ihar Alinevich, Volha Zavadskaya, mother of journalist Dzmitry Zavadsky who disappeared in 2000, Marina Lobava, the mother of a political prisoner Eduard Lobau, and former political prisoners Katsiaryna Sadouskaya and Dzmitry Bulanau present, who were talking to the audience.  They told their stories about detentions, arrests and pressure to those who were present.

The director Volha Nikalaychyk noted that in her work she wanted to give people information about tortures that someones have faced, because it is the only thing that she can do in this situation.

Human rights defender Siarhei Ustsinau (left), in turn, noted that the ill-treatment by law enforcement and security agencies has a serious impact on the fate of people who faced it: “It’s not just the complaints and emotions.These are lives, that are often broken. “

 Guests also drew attention to the uniqueness of this event, because there is no possibility of gathering, watching a film and discussing it in a wide circle in Belarus under existing circumstances.

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