Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus

Name: Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus
Director: Madeleine Sackler
Released: 2013

Madeleine Sackler 2013

Creating provocative theatre carries great personal risks: emotional, financial and artistic. For the members of the Belarus Free Theatre, there are additional risks: censorship, imprisonment, and worse. Director Madeleine Sackler goes behind the scenes with the acclaimed troupe of imaginative and subversive performers who, in a desolate country choked by censorship and repression, defy Europe’s last remaining dictatorship. When authorities forbid critical examinations of such topics as sexual orientation, alcoholism, suicide and politics, the Free Theatre responds by injecting these taboos into performances that are staged in underground.

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Running Time:

76 min.

Spoken Languages:

English, Russian, Belarusian

Subtitles:

English

Directors:

Madeleine Sackler

Producers:

Madeleine Sackler

Cinematographers:

Daniel Carter, Larissa Kabernik

Editors:

Anne Barliant, Leigh Johnson

Production Companies:

Great Curve Films

Press

Independent (UK)

Absurdist dramas staged with grace and ingenuity, these "dangerous acts" draw attention in eloquent and very affecting fashion to the plight of Lukashenko's victims.

Geoffrey Macnab
Guardian

It is startling to see how political opposition and outrage were being mobilised, not primarily by journalism, or social media or established forms of protest, but by theatre.

Peter Bradshaw
Financial Times

Dangerous Acts is a poignant picture of eastern Europe art at home and in exile.

Nigel Andrews
Observer (UK)

Excerpts of performances from shows such as Being Harold Pinter and Minsk 2011 hint at the visceral power of the group, which the Belarusian authorities apparently view as a threat to national security.

Mark Kermode

Festival Participation

Toronto International Film Festival - 2013
IDFA - 2013
London Human Rights Watch Film Festival - 2014
Movies That Matter, The Netherlands - 2014
DOK.fest, Munich - 2014
Seattle International Film Festival - 2014
Biografilm Festival, Italy - 2014
Human Rights Watch Film Festival, USA - 2014
AFI Docs, USA - 2014

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