Resisting Patriarchy in Contemporary Belarusian Cinema: Establishing the Female Gaze and Voice in the Films by Female Directors

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

Abstract

Belarusian cinema has seen the rise of numerous prominent male film directors during its Soviet period, including Vladimir Korsh-Sablin, Richard Viktorov, Viktor Turov, Vitaliy Chetverikov, Mikhail Ptashuk, and many more. It is not until after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the Belarusian female film directors have begun receiving some public recognition and visibility, with figures such as Galina Adamovich and Mariia Mozhar emerging. Since the mid-2020s, a "new wave" of filmmakers has emerged in Belarusian cinema, with several talented female directors offering their unique perspectives in feature and documentary films. Among these are Aleksandra Butor, Anastasiya Miroshnichenko, Vlada Senkova, and Darya Zhuk. This paper aims to analyze the cinematic language, genre conventions, character development, and narrative choices of these directors as they establish their unique cinematic styles and share their perspectives on the socio-economic, ideological, gender, and cultural structures of the contemporary Belarusian society. I am focusing specifically on the films that have been made in the past decade: Senkova’s The Count in Oranges (2015) and II/Two (2019), Miroshnichenko’s Debut (2017) and We (2017), Zhuk’s Crystal Swan (2018), and Butor’s The Target (2022). In my analysis, I operate with the terminology used by Anzhelika Artyukh in her book on female film directors—“feminist optics,” “super hybridity of genre,” “a new structure of feelings,” and “new performative strategies'' (6) that can be traced in the films by the young generation of Belarusian female directors.

Author

• Olga Klimova, U of Pittsburgh