A creative meeting with the directorial and acting team of the national film "On the Other Side" took place at the Vitebsk Region Media Center, with online participation.
This was announced by the film's director, Andrey Khrulev, at a creative online meeting with the public of Vitebsk, held at the regional Media Center.
The fact that the film is in demand among viewers is confirmed by data. Released on the eve of National Unity Day, according to the state enterprise "Kinovideoprokat," in September alone, it was watched by over 230,000 viewers across the country. In the cinemas of our region, it was watched by over 32,000.
Although the director emphasizes that the film contains fictional elements and does not claim historical accuracy, it tells the truth about the events of the 1920s in the western part of Belarus.
– The events of the period of Polish occupation are conveyed accurately, – confirms Anatoly Dulov, Head of the Department of History and Cultural Heritage at VSU named after P. Masherov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, member of the presidium of the board of the regional society "Znanie". – Western Belarus, as a result of the conclusion of the Treaty of Brest in 1921, became part of the Second Polish Republic. The Poles guaranteed the observance of the social, national, and religious-cultural rights of the Belarusian people, but grossly violated these guarantees.
Our lands became an agrarian and raw material appendage, ruthlessly exploited. More than 80% of the population consisted of peasants who owned small plots of land. The low level of agricultural technology against the backdrop of large families led to them living in hunger, hiring themselves out as day laborers to Polish landowners who owned most of the land.
Poland was not interested in developing industry in our territory. While modernization was taking place in the BSSR, and by the end of the 1930s it had transformed from an agrarian into an agrarian-industrial republic, Western Belarus only had small enterprises focused on processing local raw materials. Labor legislation was not in effect, and the wages of Belarusians were significantly lower than those of Poles.
The economic situation was compounded by national and religious oppression. It was forbidden to speak one's native language in state institutions, Belarusian schools, cultural centers, clubs, and periodicals were closed. Pressure was exerted on the Orthodox Church. The confiscation of churches was a real practice.
– This is indeed a complex story that no one has undertaken to film, – said Viktor Glushin, Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk City Executive Committee, thanking Andrey Khruleva for his creative achievement. – The theme of the pain and suffering of people in the occupied territory, their struggle, is not widely covered in cinema and culture as a whole. For us in the east of the country, which remained part of the BSSR, the situation in Western Belarus was not fully understood. Information in school textbooks is also scarce. For many, it remains an unknown territory that needs to be talked about. This is very well and emotionally done through the art of cinema, through the destinies and experiences of ordinary people.
Participants of the meeting, including actor Daniil Chup, who played the main character Pasha Smolich, and representatives of authorities and youth public organizations, discussed key film quotes online: "A person without faith is not a person," "History is made by our hands," "Where they pay – that's the Motherland? Sold to the Poles for three kopecks...". Together, they reflected on moral choices, the formation of a young person, and their path from a boy to a real man. Experts focused on the continued existence of destructive methods in the policies of the Polish authorities.
The director of the film "On the Other Bank," using the fate of the main character as an example, urged young people to move from indifference and apathy to an active life position. It is necessary to confidently take the side of good, otherwise, the wrong side may prevail in indecision.
– The main message of the film is about the unity of the people, the nation, about the land where you took your first steps, about the community that allowed us to win the Great Patriotic War, – shared Gennady Egorov, Chairman of the regional Coordination Council of public associations and political parties, Deputy Chairman of the regional organization of the NGO "Belaya Rus". – This film makes us remember the grief that division brought us, and think about the current realities. Everything develops in a spiral, history repeats itself in a different guise.
Films on such serious topics, according to Gennady Egorov, enrich national culture and raise the level of political culture of the population.
We recommend watching it!
"Vitebskiye Vesti"