From Venice to Amsterdam: Andrei Kutsila’s Film “Listy” About Belarusian Political Prisoners to Screen at IDFA

Reform.news Editorial Team · 30 September 2026, 14:04

https://reform.news/en/from-venice-to-amsterdam-andrei-kutsila-s-film-listy-about-belarusian-political-prisoners-to-screen-at-idfa/

The documentary “Listy” (Letters from the Silenced Country) by Belarusian director Andrei Kutsila continues its successful festival run. The film has been selected for the Signed section of the official program of IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film festival, held in Amsterdam.

The Signed program brings together new works by directors with a distinctive artistic voice and unique cinematic language.

“We are happy to be back in Amsterdam and at IDFA! Our entire team is immensely grateful to be part of this selected program. For us, this is a crucial platform for continuing to speak about Belarusian political prisoners through cinema,” Andrei Kutsila wrote on social media.

International Success and Recognition in Venice

The world premiere of “Listy” took place at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where its creators received the prestigious Golden Globes Impact Prize for Documentary, a special Golden Globe award recognizing social impact in documentary filmmaking. The participation of a Belarusian film in the Venice festival was a historic event — Belarusian cinema had not been represented in its program for decades.

International media and film critics have praised Kutsila’s work. Modern Times Review called “Listy” “an uncomfortable but extremely relevant film by a director seeking to return Belarus and the tragedy of its people to the world’s agenda.”

What Is “Listy” About?

The film tells the story of contemporary Belarus through personal accounts, letters and drawings by people who have experienced imprisonment, repression and forced emigration. At its heart is a mosaic of five people’s lives, including the story of Vitold Ashurak, who died in a penal colony, as well as that of a young artist and student whose prison drawings and diaries served as the basis for animated sequences in the film.

The film is based on intimate correspondence and transforms private letters into an artistic space of dignity, solidarity and resistance. It was produced through an international co-production involving Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and Germany.

This is not the first time a Belarusian filmmaker has participated in IDFA. In 2018, his film “Summa” won the award for best mid-length documentary in Amsterdam. Kutsila’s directorial portfolio also includes more than a dozen internationally recognized documentaries, including “Kill the Day” (2010), “Guests” (2015), “Strip and War” (2019), “I Need the Handshakes” (2020), “When Flowers Are Not Silent” (2021), “Holy Water” (2023) and others.