Under the Grey Sky (2024) by Mara Tamkovich

Author

I. Kh.

Abstract

The award-winning film [Pad shėrym nebam] / Pod szarym niebem / Under the Grey Sky (Mara Tamkovich 2024) is based on the real political persecution and imprisonment of a Belarusian journalist, Katsiaryna Andreyeva (Katsiaryna Andrėeva). The film review examines how this minimalist drama explores themes of moral choice, enduring love and hope against all odds in a harrowing political environment of post-2020 Belarus.

Keywords

Mara Tamkovich; Katsiaryna Andreyeva (Katsiaryna Andrėeva); Ihar Ilyash (Ihar Ilʹiash); Belarus; Minsk; 2020 protests; independent journalism; political prisoners; resistance; hope.

[Pad shėrym nebam] / Pod szarym niebem / Under the Grey Sky (Mara Tamkovich, 2024, Poland) is the debut feature film written and directed by Mara Tamkovich, a Polish-Belarusian filmmaker and former radio and TV journalist, who since 2006 has resided in Poland, where she graduated from the Warsaw Film School. The film was shot with a modest budget from the Polish Film Institute (250, 000 euros), and the entire production process was limited to the span of one year according to the terms of the contract (Tamkovich 2024). It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in 2024, travelled worldwide, and received several awards, among them the Best Debut Director at the Polish Film Festival in 2024, Special Mention at Torino Film Festival in 2024, Krzysztof Krauze Award for Best Director from the Directors Guild of Poland (2025), and the Red Heather Belarusian Film Critics Award for Best Fiction Feature Film and performances by the lead actors Valentin Novopolskij (Valiantsin Navapolʹski) and Aliaksandra Vaitsekhovich.

Under the Grey Sky is a continuation of the director’s reflections on the events in the aftermath of the rigged presidential elections in Belarus in August 2020 – a turning point in Belarusian history that gave rise to unprecedented mass protests in the country, on the one hand, and unprecedented violence and massive repressions – still ongoing – from Lukashenka’s regime, on the other. In 2022, Tamkovich made the award-winning short film [U zhyvym ėfiry] / Na żywo / Live, produced by the Wajda Film School together with Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych (WFDiF) and Belsat TV. The short focuses on two journalists, a reporter, Lena, and a cameraperson, Ola, who livestream from a residential apartment located above the Square of Changes (Ploshcha peramen) in one of Minsk’s neighbourhoods, where people gathered in solidarity to mourn the death of Raman Bandarenka, beaten to death by representatives of the repressive state apparatus.¹ This livestream opens Under the Grey Sky. While the short film focuses solely on the broadcast, Under the Grey Sky takes us on a painful journey through the aftermath of the livestream for which Lena is arrested, as well as her husband Ilʹia’s fight for her.

As the first shot of Under the Grey Sky announces, this story is based on true events – the same events on which Live is based. Lena’s prototype is Katsiaryna Andreyeva (Katsiaryna Andrėeva), Ola’s – Darya Chultsova (Dar’ia Chulʹtsova), both Belsat journalists,² and Ilʹia’s prototype is Ihar Ilyash (Ihar Ilʹiash), Katsiaryna’s husband. In November 2020, during the livestream documenting the peaceful gathering that was turned into a violent crackdown by the riot police, Katsiaryna and Darya were tracked with a drone and arrested; both were sentenced to two years in prison on charges of organising actions that grossly violated public order.³ Katsiaryna’s sentence was later increased while she was in prison; she was charged with high treason and sentenced again, this time to eight years.

Tamkovich’s film grounds its plot in these facts. The film starts with the livestream, followed by Lena and Ola’s arrest. The film then shifts focus: after the political protest, it turns to the story of the personal struggle and survival of two people against the repressive state machine. It focuses on Ilʹia, Lena’s husband, his suspended life and fight for Lena, and his, in fact, futile attempts to find justice for her in a situation in which the law is ceasing to work. Under threat himself, he hides in the countryside; on returning home, he finds that it has been searched and wrecked.