The new documentary by Polish-based Belarusian filmmaker Andrei Kutsila, Letters from the Silenced Country, is set to world-premiere out of competition in the Venice Film Festival’s Venice Open section. Cineuropa can now exclusively reveal the film’s poster.

The doc is a portrait of contemporary Belarus told through stories of individuals who have endured imprisonment, repression and exile – voices silenced by an autocratic regime. Combining observational footage, archival and found materials, testimonies, and animation based on drawings created in confinement, the film transforms private correspondence into a cinematic space of intimacy, dignity and reflection, raising questions about sacrifice, solidarity and the human cost of resistance in a silenced country.

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Kutsila, who won the IDFA Award for Best Mid-length Documentary in 2018 with Summa, and whose last feature, When Flowers Are Not Silent, picked up a Special Mention at Ji.hlava in 2021, says: “I was forced to leave Belarus five years ago, after the protests against the falsification of the presidential elections were violently suppressed. I know the stories of those imprisoned by the regime firsthand. My sister was one of them – she was arrested, and she still cannot forget the screams of people being tortured every night. This is not a story of the past; the repression continues. Almost every day, someone is arrested and someone is sentenced – often without public knowledge. Through my film, I want to give a voice to those who cannot speak – Belarusians living in a silenced country.”

The film was lensed by Wojciech Węglarz and edited by Piotr Ogiński (In the Rearview), while the score was composed by Vygintas Kisevičius and Paulius Kilbauskas (who previously collaborated on Sasha Was Here). Jacek Bławut served as artistic supervisor, and Natalia Spychała was in charge of the animation.

Letters from the Silenced Country was produced by Mirosław Dembiński for Poland's DocEdu Foundation, and co-produced by Friedemann Hottenbacher and Gregor Streiber for Germany's inselfilm production as well as Giedrė Žickytė for Lithuania's Moonmakers. Filmotor has the international rights.

Check out our exclusive poster below, which was designed by Olha Cherpak: