Who, if not us?

A documentary by Juliane Tutein | 60 min | 2023 | D

The documentary “Who, if not us?” chronicles the fight for democracy in Belarus through the experiences of three women from different generations. The film captures the spirit and determination of the Belarusian opposition as they struggle against Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime that has held power for decades.

The film offers a unique and personal perspective on the current political situation in Belarus and sheds light on how democracy is nothing given but something people fight for every day.

The film follows three women: Nina Baginskaya, who lived through the Soviet era and was already active in the fight for independence in the 1980s and has become an icon of the Belarusian opposition protests, Tanya Hatsura-Yavorskaya, a human rights activist and founder of the Belarusian human rights film festival “Watch Docs”, and Darya Rublevskaya, a young activist who works for Viasna, the NGO founded by Ales Bialiatski, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. Darya fled to Lithuania, after many of her colleges were arrested but continues to fight from abroad for a better future for her country.

The film provides a unique insight by documenting the everyday lives of these three women over the course of a year, and by ending in the war in Ukraine, ultimately reveals how the outcome of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine will also determine the future fate of Belarus.