Documentary on Protest against Rigged Election 2006 in Minsk Awarded in Czech

Source: www.charter97.org

The International Festival of documentaries on the subject of human rights protection was held in Prague on 1-8 March. Lesson of the Belarusian Language documentary of Polish director Miroslaw Dembinski got two prizes at the festival. One of these prizes is annually awarded by a special jury under the honored leadership of Vaclav Gavel to a film for its contribution to the human rights protection. The second prize for the best film in Generation Next of the European Union nomination is awarded by the students’ jury of the festival.

’Both prizes are very important. I am pleased that my documentary was noticed and rewarded. But I consider that it is not the documentary, which was rewarded but the matter, which I wished to express in my film. The cause of Belarus is very important and actual and it is necessary to spend much effort for promoting Belarus and its problems on a large scale. Both those prizes and that festival are so important to me because they dwell on the Belarusian issues. For this reason I try to give a large-scale presentation of this film. Here in Western Europe the documentary was displayed many times at different festivals. But penetration of this film to Belarus is also very important to me,’ declared Miroslaw Dembinski to RFE/RL.

It is to be mentioned that the director combined talks with young people on today and tomorrow of Belarus with the frames of the last year’s presidential election in his documentary.