Banned film screened in Edinburgh despite 'crass censorship' attempt by Belarus

The world premiere of a banned film has gone ahead in Edinburgh despite what has been labelled a “crass censorship” attempt by Belarusian authorities to stop the screening.

Kupala, a biopic of the life of Belarusian national poet Janka Kupala, was made in 2020, but remains banned in Belarus and has never been shown in public until Thursday night, when it was screened at Summerhall arts centre in the Scottish capital.

The film was shown just hours after an email was received by the venue from Belarusfilm, the government-controlled national film studio, prohibiting any screening of Kupala given it owns the rights to the film. It warned Summerhall would be charged with intellectual property theft if it went ahead.

Robert McDowell, Summerhall director, said: “We asked them to prove that they have the rights. As far as I know, we haven’t heard back. We know they could only sue for the total of the value of the tickets and we don’t care about that. It is much more important to make a stand against a crass censorship attempt.

“We are the biggest private arts centre in Europe which exists to uphold the founding principle of the very first (Edinburgh International) festival, to heal the wounds of war through the language of the arts. That is why we exist, to show that the arts reach across the great divides in this world. Our purpose is empathy and understanding across international borders.

"This film has never been shown anywhere in the world and in Edinburgh, it was a world premiere. We heard about this film during the festival and we felt that we had to programme it. If we can, we might try and show it again.”

Mr McDowell said he believed the footage may have been smuggled out of Belarus, with the film shown “in pristine condition on a very good projector” to around 40 people.

"We all felt profoundly moved and privileged to be able to see it,” he said.

Robert McDowell, director of Summerhall, said it was important to take a stand against "crass censorship" and show the film. PIC: Neil Hanna.

The film charts the life of Kupala against a backdrop of state oppression of national identity. The writer has been described as The People’s Poet of Belarus and one of the founders of literary Belarusian after a long period of discrimination against the language, which was banned from use in printed texts until 1905.

Kupala helped found the Belarusian State University, the National Theatre and several publishing houses. He died in unexplained circumstances after falling into the stairwell on the tenth floor of a Moscow hotel.

The move to stop the film screening came on the same day that several MSPs added to international calls for the release of Belarusian political prisoner Ales Bialiatski, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who has been in prison for 500 days without trial.

He is the founder of the country's Viasna (Spring) Human Rights Centre, set up in 1996 following a brutal crackdown of street protests by Belarus's authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Irina McLean, a NHS worker who represents the People’s Consulate for Belarus in Scotland, was in the audience on Thursday and said action from the authorities over the film was expected.

Ms McLean said: “It was very important to me that the film was shown. I couldn’t thank Robert enough for being brave enough to go ahead and show it.”