Documentary about involuntary disappearances in Belarus: call for sponsors

03.09.2013

The first ever documentary about involuntary disappeared Belarusians is to be filmed by an international team of enthusiastic people. The team has initiated a crowd funding to find sponsors who are willing to contribute a voluntary amount of money to finance a part of the project. The premiere of the film is planned to take place on September 16 2014, on the 15th anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky.

Back in 1999-2000, right in the heart of Europe, four prominent Belarusians were subjected to involuntary disappearance: Yury Zakharenko on 7 May 1999, Anatoly Krasovsky and Viktor Gonchar on 16 September 1999, and Dmitri Zavadsky on 7 July 2000. Their fate still remains unknown. Despite numerous resolutions of institutions including Parliamentary Assembly of the European Union, the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the NATO, the Belarusian authorities refuse to investigate the cases properly and transparently.   

The lives of the wives, mothers and children of the four disappeared men are divided into two stages: before and after. In this documentary they look back at their life before, and they tell about their life after.

This documentary is an honor to the four distinguished men, each of them a true hero of the contemporary Belarus. Except for paying a tribute to the four disappeared men, the documentary is a way of raising awareness all around the world about the horrific situation with the human rights abuse in Belarus, enforced disappearance being one of the manifestations of the violations. Furthermore, the film is an art project aiming to show how people deal with the everyday pain of uncertainty about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

For more information about the documentary and how you can contribute, please refer to the project page.

To view the trailer of the future documentary, visit Youtube