Editor

Belarussian censors attempt to block Moscow Competition screenings of MYSTERIUM OCCUPATION

The Belarussian Ministry of Culture has by official letter requested its Russian counterpart to remove MYSTERIUM OCCUPATION, a gripping Second World War film trilogy by Belarussian director Andrei Kudinenko, from the new 'Perspectives' Competition programme of the Moscow International Film Festival (June 18-27). MYSTERIUM OCCUPATION, up for its first Moscow festival screening June 23, is banned from cinemas within Belarus.

Mentioning the official letter, Andrei Kudinenko and producer Alexander Debaliouk further stated last week to the Rotterdam Hubert Bals Fund that the Belarussian authorities 'actively keep putting barriers to our film's promotion as they fear the film might cause a political scandal'.

In 'The Moscow Times' of last June 18, Kudinenko says that the Belarussian cinema and video licensing board 'initially gave us a certificate allowing us to show the film, but when they found out that the film would go to Moscow, to the cinema festival, they suddenly withdrew it for some reason.'

MYSTERIUM OCCUPATION saw its world premiere during the 2004 International Film Festival Rotterdam. In 2002 IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund supported MYSTERIUM OCCUPATION with a grant for post production. In its recent May 2004 round of grants, the Hubert Bals Fund provided financial support for regional distribution.

MYSTERIUM OCCUPATION is made up of three novellas that are interwoven and blend in tone and mood: the vicissitudes of a deaf and dumb woman who, after losing her little boy, expresses her maternal feelings on a wounded Nazi soldier; a boy who thinks his long lost father was the murderer of his mother and stepfather; and of a young recruit who is forced by an older partisan (obviously with a criminal past) to rob, rape and take out his revenge on a partisan deserter. During the Second World War, the Belarussian rural population had a difficult time under the terror and occupation of the Nazis, but also under the partisans instructed by Moscow, largely comprising unruly bandits. In the end, the Belarussians primarily made life difficult for each other. Andrei Kudinenko and his enthusiastic crew provided a gripping picture of the drama. The lack of facilities is compensated by an expressive, moving camera and the modern soundtrack.

Andrei Kudinenko (Brest, 1971) completed his studies in 1998 at the art academy in Minsk and has made short experimental and fiction films since 1995: EGORKA'S HEART (1995, short), A LITTLE JOKE (1996, short), HIDE-AND-SEEK GAME (1997, short), VALENTIN VINOGRADOV'S DREAMS (1998, short), THE RAM (1999, short), PLANET XX (2000, short). MYSTERIUM OCCUPATION (2004) is his fiction feature début.