Belarusian Horror Cinema through Postcolonial Lens

• In Event: Identity, Resistance, and Solidarity: Decolonizing Narratives in Belarusian Cinema

Abstract

The presentation examines the evolution of Belarusian horror cinema through three Belarusian horror films: adaptation of Uladzimer Karatkevich's novel Wild Hunt of King Stakh (Rubinchik 1980); the self-anointed national representation of the genre, the "bulba horror" Masakra (Kudzinenka 2010); and contemporary underground production Sasha's Hell (Lavretski 2019). Through the lens of postcolonial critique the paper focuses on the cinematic devices of obfuscation and omission as strategies of colonial resistance, with a particular emphasis on temporality and spaciality of the "local" in the films. Centering the question of what it means to be "known in the world" (Kolyada 2011) for Belarus and Belarusians, the essay explores how the horror genre subverts both the nation-building meta-narratives and the colonial narratives of oppression, allowing for more heterogeneous voices on identity and belonging to emerge.

Author

• Volha Isakava, Central Washington U