Belarus: Celebs Rumors

As if to come to the aid of her national cinema after the debacle that was Roman Polanski’s The Palace, Poland’s Agnieska Holland, soon to turn 75, restores some of her homeland’s cultural dignity with a devastating exposé that angrily, and quite brilliantly, questions its humanity and political integrity. At 144 minutes, and in black and white, it is not exactly a Trojan horse, and its moral rigor does not come with a spoonful of sugar. But Green Border earns every second of that running time, and with a focus and energy that belies its directors age. Awards-wise, this may prove to be the international feature to beat.

Jessica Kiang While you’re still in the vice-like grip of its multilevel narrative it may not feel like it, but a film like Agnieszka Holland’s bruisingly powerful new refugee drama ultimately comes from a place of optimism. It is optimistic to expect and nurture of a reaction of potentially motivating outrage, when you portray the brutality of which human individuals, at the behest of human institutions, are capable. It is optimistic to believe that, faced with extraordinary cruelty, a viewer’s ordinary decency will be compelled to rise and rebel.

Christopher Vourlias Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland follows the harrowing ordeal of a refugee family trapped on the margins of the E.U. in “Green Border,” a gripping drama from the prolific Polish director that plays in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Triple Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border,” which will premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival, before going onto Toronto Film Festival and New York Film Festival, has sold to multiple territories. Variety has been granted access to an exclusive clip from the film, and Holland’s notes on the production, which we quote from below, again exclusively.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief HYBE Corp., the K-Pop powerhouse behind BTS, and the U.S.’s Geffen Records are to bring their global girl group audition efforts to Netflix as a docuseries that will launch next year. The two music companies announced the 2024 series and a companion-piece online show that kicks off on Thursday as their “The Debut: Dream Academy” moves up a gear. Having begun the selection process in November 2021 and screened some 120,000 submissions from young women hopefuls from around the world, they have now narrowed the field to just 20 candidates.

Russia's investigative committee has announced that Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of mercenary group Wagner, has died in a plane crash.

Naman Ramachandran The first trailer has been unveiled for “Walls” (“Mur”), actor-turned-filmmaker Kasia Smutniak’s directorial debut that will world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to a mass exodus of refugees seeking asylum across Europe. Among the European countries offering aid and refuge, Poland was particularly generous but the country had also simultaneously commenced the construction of Europe’s most expensive wall along its entire border with Belarus to deter further refugees from entering.

EXCLUSIVE: Big World Pictures has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights from Paris-based sales firm Charades to Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature, Disco Boy.

Marta Balaga It was a good day for female filmmakers – and documentaries – at Locarno Pro, with “Mother Vera” by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson winning the Creativity Media First Look Award on Sunday at Locarno’s pix-in-post competition, dedicated this year to the U.K. Dedicated to a young Orthodox nun, “Mother Vera” shows her turbulent past and fragile future as she faces inner conflict after 20 years as a monastic.

Belarusian-set pic Mother Vera has picked up Locarno’s Creativity Media First Look Award, the biggest prize handed out by the festival’s industry section. 

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Wimbledon is officially underway — and it’s already proving to be a tournament you don’t want to miss. Reigning champion Novak Djokovic has the chance to capture his fifth Wimbledon title in a row, which would continue his winning streak as an all-time leader in the men’s Grand Slam titles. However, the next two weeks of play, which will conclude with the men’s singles final on July 16, could also see Djovkovic dethroned by top-seed players Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedevev or Casper Ruud. On the women’s side, eyes will be on Iga Swiatek, seeded No. 1 on the women’s bracket, who will be up against Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina. The women’s singles final will take place on July 15.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Vice News has released the trailer for its documentary “Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story,” which will be showing at Karlovy Vary Film Festival next week. The film had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival earlier in June and Nate Pommer, who directed alongside Eric Weinrib, was awarded a special jury mention. The jury said the film was being recognized “for the enduring use of art as a weapon against cant and authoritarianism.” The jury added: “We are grateful to the director for translating Gogol Bordello’s rebellious joy and rage at remaining human and vibrant in the face of everything time has thrown in its path.”

News networks continued to focus on the instability in Russia, as Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time since a failed rebellion led by Wagner Group mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin.

Clearly, Rice had already thought this through.“Well, I think it probably gives him too much credit,” she responded. “I at one point I thought, could this be staged? But you wouldn’t stage something that makes you look so weak, because really, dictators, authoritarians, rest on three principles: One, is there has to be fear in the population.

Vladimir Putin has said he is confident of being able to implement future plans in the war in Ukraine despite the Wagner rebellion. The leader broke his silence following the extraordinary events in Russia which seen armed mercenaries advancing on Moscow.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has been banished from Russia after Vladimir Putin dropped charges against him.

The head of Wagner force said he has told his troops to stop their march on Moscow and instead withdraw to their field camps in Ukraine in a bid to avoid shedding Russian blood.

The head of the Wagner force said he has ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine to avoid shedding Russian blood.

An expert has warned that infighting between the military and Vladimir Putin could be the beginning of the end of the Russian warmonger.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Lovers of ’80s music in the synth-pop and post-punk genres rejoiced Saturday as a stuffed roster including Iggy Pop, Gang of Four, Love and Rockets, Echo and the Bunnymen and the Human League performed at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena. The festival had an unexpected second evening of performances on Sunday after lightning cut short Saturday night’s show before Siouxsie was able to play. It’s not an easy job to give the faithful fans what they want while avoiding sounding like a Totally ’80s greatest hits sampler. Most of the attendees had four decades of hearing these bands under their studded belts, recognizing many of the songs from the very first jangly chord. Though many of the acts have released new music in the ensuing 40 or so years, the audience wasn’t really there to make new discoveries, and the bands obliged with tight sets heavy on MTV staples.

Christopher Vourlias With Jonathan Glazer’s Auschwitz-set Holocaust drama “The Zone of Interest” competing for the Palme d’Or and a host of Polish producers bringing buzzy upcoming projects to the Marché du Film, the Polish industry should again have Cannes talking. Here’s a rundown of some of the highlights: The Zone of Interest(Competition)Director: Jonathan GlazerProducers: James Wilson, Ewa Puszczyńska (JW Films, Extreme Emotions)Sales: A24The veteran British filmmaker’s first film in nearly a decade, which will compete for the Palme d’Or, is a Holocaust drama loosely based on the novel by Martin Amis that’s sure to be among the festival’s most talked-about films.

Films Boutique has closed multiple territory deals on Agnieszka Holland’s “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland. The film has been sold to Condor (France), September Films (Benelux), Movies Inspired (Italy), Leopardo Filmes (Portugal), MCF Megacom (former Yugoslavia), Kino Swiat (Poland) and AQS (Czech Rep./Slovakia). “The Green Border” tells the story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko, who opened the country’s doors to migrants as a back door to enter the EU.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off a successful collaboration on “Charlatan,” Films Boutique has boarded Agnieszka Holland’s next film “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland. Now in post production, “The Green Border” tells the fateful story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by President Lukaschenko opening doors to migrants in Belarus as a back door to enter the EU.  The screenplay, penned by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk, is inspired by real events. Research for the film included hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, borderland residents, activists and experts.

SPOILER ALERT: The following story reveals major plot points from tonight’s FBI and FBI: International crossover event on CBS.

Motherland, a “dark and monumental” film about neo-nationalism in Belarus, earned the top prize tonight at the prestigious CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen.

Lise Pedersen The top Dox:Award at CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen documentary festival, has gone to “Motherland” by Ukrainian-Belarussian director Alexander Mihalkovich (“My Granny From Mars”) and Ukrainian director Hanna Badziaka. Described by Variety as “an ominous portrait of the oppressive culture of cruelty in post-Soviet Belarus,” the film follows Svetlana, whose son died during his military service as the result of violent abuse, in her quest to expose and prosecute those responsible for his death. Dedicating the award to “all the Ukrainians fighting Russian aggression and to Belarussian political prisoners,” the directing duo thanked all those who helped them make the film, in particular the protagonists, “who were brave to stand in front of the camera and patient with us as it was a long journey of four years.”

Elena Rybakina is the champion!

Jessica Kiang The very first words in the Belarusian national anthem, which is being sung devoutly at an army graduation ceremony as “Motherland” begins, are “We Belarusians are peaceful people.” It does not take long for the irony to bite. Grave skies heavy with snow frame the stark beauty of Siarhiej Kanaplianik’s camerawork, as Hanna Badziaka and Alexander Mihalkovich’s handsome, bitter film outlines something close to the inverse of that ideal: a culture of brutality, bullying and complicity that is fostered in the Belarusian military, and then seeps like the cold into the very bones of civilian society.   Dedovshchina, as some terse titles explain, translates to the benign-sounding “rule of Grandads.” But it describes a systematic code of psychological and physical abuse visited on new conscripts by their longer-serving colleagues, that the Belarusian military establishment, like that of other former Soviet countries, inherited from the Russian army. Most of the time, dedovshschina can be characterized as a particularly violent and humiliating form of ritual hazing, designed to break any spirit of independence or rebellion in newcomers. And having understood that conformity is their best survival tactic (even at that first graduation ceremony, onlookers remark that they cannot pick their own sons out of the lineup: “They kind of all look the same”), last season’s victims become the next cycle’s perpetrators, before they matriculate back into the general population, carrying with them the harsh lessons they’ve learned about might being right, and submission to authority being an inescapable fact of life. 

Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl developer GSC Game World has confirmed that it’s been the victim of a hack, following claims that “a huge amount of materials” from the game would be leaked if the Ukrainian studio does not apologise to Russian fans.Details of the hack first surfaced on Saturday (March 11) when a user from Russian social media site VK claimed to have “tens of gigabytes” of content taken from Stalker 2, including the game’s story, maps and cutscene information.The statement was accompanied by a number of unreleased screenshots and concept art from the game.In the post, the hacker demanded that GSC Game World “rethink [its] attitude towards players from Belarus and Russia,” remove the ban on the hacker’s account from Stalker 2‘s official Discord, and announce a Russian-localised version of Stalker 2.Currently, Stalker 2 is not available for purchase in Russia.The hacker has threatened to release the stolen Stalker 2 footage if GSC Game World does not comply by March 15 and claimed that “it is not necessary to spoil the game for people because of politics”.Yesterday (March 12) GSC Game World confirmed that although an employee had been hacked, it had no plans to comply with the hacker.A message from GSC Game World team pic.twitter.com/rqRM0tFZmO— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) March 12, 2023“This is not the first attempt to hack and leak our data, including personal information,” wrote the studio.

Recovering Rangers star Ianis Hagi's international comeback has been put on hold after Romania left him out of their Euro 2024 qualifiers later this month.

Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Liubyi is marking the first anniversary on Friday of Russia’s invasion of his country with a screening at the Berlin Film Festival of documentaryIron Butterflies in its Panorama section.

What do a Belarusian emigrant and an African freedom fighter have in common? It’s a question that Giacomo Abbruzzese’s feature debut, which had its world premiere in Competition at the Berlin Film Festival, answers in a beguilingly magic-realist and digressive way that sort of adds up, even though it requires a lot of good faith from the viewer to make it do so. To illustrate its strangeness, Disco Boy could be loosely described as a mash-up of Beau Travail and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, two very different movies. While both are firmly anchored in arthouse history, neither resembles the other, and it’s that contrast—the rich potential opened up by the space in between—that’s in play here.

Young Belarusian Aleksei (Franz Rogowski) is impatient for a better life in Europe. Coming from a country under dictatorship and with very strong Russian ties, the political isolation of which has made it suffocating for the younger generations, he is seduced by the idea of a borderless, communal whole where everybody counts for something.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Paris-based Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese says making the Berlin Film Festival competition cut with his first feature, “Disco Boy,” which toplines German star Franz Rogowski (“Passages,” ”Undine”), is “certainly a dream come true.” But he also points out that his remarkable debut was a long time coming.  A graduate of several film schools, including France’s prestigious Le Fresnoy, Abbruzzese started developing “Disco Boy” in 2013 following an encounter in a French disco with a classical dancer who had been a soldier.  

Christopher Vourlias Belarusian filmmakers and industry professionals gathered in Berlin on Friday to announce the launch of the Belarusian Film Academy (BIFA), an organization formed to give a platform to independent filmmakers in the repressive former Soviet republic and staunch Kremlin ally. Born in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when more than 130 Belarusian filmmakers signed a collective statement condemning the unprovoked act of aggression, the academy was created to “solidify, unite and support” their voices, according to co-founder Volia Chajkouskaya. “Living under state censorship and control, we have been searching for ways to unite for a long time,” said Chajkouskaya, a producer, director and founder of the Northern Lights Film Festival. “Since [the start of the Ukraine war], we all continued to face challenges individually and felt that we should unite in solidarity to form a unified front.”

Kyogo and Lawrence Shankland are among the contenders for the European Golden Boot - but have some work to do to catch runaway leader Erling Haaland.