Pioneering

LONG KNIVES NIGHT and REPORTING FROM A RABBIT HUTCH are almost certainly the most important films the Pioneer will show in 2006. They may be the most important films the Pioneer has ever scheduled.

Recently, you have read and seen coverage of the “election” in Belarus. You have heard that the election's aftermath pits Russia against the West: Russia has endorsed Alexander Lukashenko's return for a third term, while a rather unified West, including both the European Union and the United States, have called it fraud.

You have also heard of rebellion, hunger strikes, and protesters jailed for “hooliganism.”


But who is this Alexander Lukashenko?

Why is he called “the last dictator in Europe?”(1)

What on earth has he done?

With fury and agony, LONG KNIVES NIGHT and REPORTING FROM A RABBIT HUTCH approach these questions. Writer / director Victor Dashuk has risked imprisonment and abuse – common for dissidents, as you will see in the films – to depict and attack Lukashenko's rise to authority. The films are raw, vicious, and totally one-sided: there is not a frame of sympathy for Lukashenko in these films. Dashuk is outrageously cynical, attacking Lukashenko himself, but also comparing Belarussians' prostrations before authoritarian leaders with Satanists' prostrations before their dark master.

You could easily blow off these movies. We're showing them in the wrong format (one was made on celluloid, but we're projecting both from a rather low quality video master smuggled out of Minsk). They're not a single feature, but rather two films of odd length – though the latter is a sequel to the former, and, combined, they are loosely feature length. They're not brand new. They are political propaganda.

But don't blow off these movies. Chew on them, react to them, fight with them, take them seriously. The situation they depict is certainly serious enough.

Buy tickets on our front page. This is a very limited run. June 1-7, 9pm only.

And please, help spread the word. We've got nothing going for this, except for the films' importance.

VILLAGE VOICE review, by Mike Atkinson
NEW YORKER review, by Reed Brody (scroll down)

(1)
This is a common phrase. A few recent usages include the March 5, 2006 editorial from the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE; and the article “The EU and America put sanctions on Belarus's leaders,” THE ECONOMIST, March 24.

These films shown by the Pioneer on versions smuggled out of Belarus.

Presented with thanks to Zoya Rozin.