''Kalinovski Square'' (original title: Плошча, or Plošča) is a 2007

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

ian filmmaker Yury Khashchavatski. The film takes a critical look at the re-election of

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian language, Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian language, Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, ; rus, Александр Григорьевич Лука� ...

in March 2006, featuring especially the protests that occurred after the election was found to be

fraudulent In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensa ...

. The protests had their centre at October Square in downtown

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

, which was informally renamed on the occasion for

Konstanty Kalinowski Wincenty Konstanty Kalinowski, also known as Kastuś Kalinoŭski ( be, Касту́сь Каліно́ўскі also be, Вінцэ́нт Канстанці́н Каліно́ўскі, lit=Vincent Kanstancin Kalinoŭski, lt, Konstantinas Kalinau ...

. Before its commercial release on DVD on 9 June 2009, the film was distributed under the title ''The Square''. Since the Belarusian authorities already persecuted director Yury Khashchavatski since his first movie ''An ordinary president'' (1996), all production was done underground.

Content

The movie explores the question how it could be possible that 83 percent voted for Lukashenko, who has been referred to as "Europe's last dictator". Drawing on a lot of archive material, the movie shows the official

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

and the naivety of simple people in the countryside, together with massive repression helped to defeat the

Jeans Revolution The Jeans Revolution ( be, Джынсавая рэвалюцыя, transliteration: ''Džynsavaja revalucyja'', russian: Джинсовая революция) was a term used by Belarus' democratic opposition to describe their protests follo ...

. The narrative style resembles that of

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

Awards

The film won the ''Award

Ion Vatamanu Ion Vatamanu (1 May 1937 in Costiceni – 9 August 1993 in Chișinău) was a writer and politician from Moldova. He was born to Maria and Ion and had a PhD in chemistry. Ion Vatamanu served as member of the Parliament of Moldova (1990–1994 ...

"for love of truth and freedom"'' at The International Documentary Film Festival CRONOGRAF, in Chişinău, 15–19 May 2008. It also won the Alpe Adria Cinema prize as the ''Best Documentary'' at the 19th

Trieste Film Festival The Trieste Film Festival is an international film festival founded in 1989. Held annually on the third week of January in Trieste, it has become the leading festival of Central and Eastern Europe cinema in Italy. References External linksOffi ...

2008. The prize was awarded for "the director’s ability to create evocative images and document reality as he sees it, from his passionate, if not at times sarcastic, perspective."

References

External links

Official Website
* {{IMDb title, 1042541
Kalinovski Square online
2007 films 2000s political films Documentary films about politics Elections in Belarus 2006 in Belarus Estonian documentary films 2007 documentary films Alexander Lukashenko 2007 independent films