Not Made For Politics
90 min | Volia Chajkouskaya
2025
A production by YUZU Productions, Allfilms and Sorento Productions
in co-production with HBO, ARTE GEIE, Eesti Telefilm and Česká televise
with the participation of RTS
with the support of the Estonian Film Institute, Estonian Cultural Endowment, International Media Support, New Democracy Fund and CNC - Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée
co-financed by the European Union
in association with Chicken & Egg Pictures
completed with the support of Women Make Movies and the Kazickas Family Foundation
International Sales: Cinephil
The 2020 presidential elections in Belarus were rigged before they had even begun. The main male opponents of long-standing leader Alexander Lukashenko were quickly arrested, silencing the opposition. But this repression brought an unexpected force to the fore: a collective of Belarusian women, united around the candidacy of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who dared to challenge an authoritarian regime that had been in power for decades. Their quiet courage sparked a vast national uprising: hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets to demand change, dignity and freedom.
For Belarusian filmmaker Volia Chajkouskaya, exiled in Estonia, these events resonated far beyond the headlines. Unable to return to her country, she experienced the revolution from afar, organizing solidarity actions in Tallinn while filming, her camera becoming both witness and mirror. She followed the journeys of three women - Nadejda, Masha and the opposition leader - in Belarus and abroad. What had begun as a documentary investigation turned into a deeply intimate journey: over the years, the filmmaker found herself at the heart of her own film, confronted with the fear inherited from repression, silence and exile.
Filmed over a period of five years, this sensitive and committed documentary traces a double awakening: that of a people carried by women who dared to stand up, and that of a filmmaker who, from observer, becomes an actor in history. Through moments of hope, despair and resilience, Volia Chajkouskaya explores the strength of collective courage and the way the struggle for freedom transforms both a nation and the sense of belonging.
The story the film tells remains open, its outcome still uncertain. But the voices it brings to the fore refuse to be silenced.
TTT Télérama — Deeply moving, this story illustrates with evident sincerity the courage and fear, loneliness and mutual support among women who share a modest dream: to live freely, with their families, in their own country.