Director Mugged for a Film

Byelorussian director Yuri Khaschevatski was mugged and hospitalized a day after his documentary An Ordinary President was shown in Germany last December. The documentary ironizes the Byelorussian president Alyaksander Lukachenka. The day after the screening two men broke into Khaschevatski's home, mugged him, and stole an unfinished documentary script.

An Ordinary President will be shown in Tampere-talo Studio on Friday at 10 am, which will also be the first screening of the film after the misfortunate incident. After the show the viewers can participate in a discussion on the Byelorussian situation and the Lukachenka politics.

The director himself was supposed to come to the Tampere Festival, but his doctor ordered him to stay home, with the plaster in his leg.

18-year-old Alina Belskaja, a Byelorussian living in Finland, is a political refugee. She was accused of spoiling the country's national symbols: she painted some anti-Lukachenka slogans on walls. Her friends, two teenage boys, were sentenced to 18 months of hard labour.

According to Belskaja, An Ordinary President is an apt depiction af the Byelorussian situation, and she wishes it would raise a wider discussion about the things going on in the country.