Belarusian Ministry of Culture: Consent to be obtained for showing and shooting movies

The Belarusian Ministry of Culture takes control of the film industry. It will affect journalists as well.

"Film production in the territory of the Republic of Belarus <...> is to be carried out with a certificate issued by the Ministry of Culture or its authorized organization (s) in accordance with the law on administrative procedures in the form prescribed by the Ministry of Culture," said the draft decree of Aliaksandr Lukashenka.

The document, which is to enter into force on 1 January 2016 was found by an independent filmmaker Andrei Kureichyk and published on the Internet, Belsat informs.

Certificate from the Ministry will not be obligatory only for films created with state support or with government agencies or television channels. An exception will also be made for amateur films, but only for those authors who do not plan to show their films publicly or publish them online.

The rest will have to go all the steps of the Belarusian bureaucracy. The certificate will be required for all other films - regardless of the timing and number of episodes. Lack of certificate means a ban on the production of the movie. The Ministry of Culture decides whether or not the film will be made.

Next week, a special commission is to consider a draft decree under the eloquent title "On some issues of film production in the Republic of Belarus and encouraging development of cinema industry". However, director Andrei Kureichyk sounds the alarm today: "After this decree there will be no more independent cinema in this country," – this is how he envisions the future of the industry that the state is planning to "encourage".

A petition appealing Aliaksandr Lukashenka not to sign the decree has appeared on the Internet.

"The purpose of the decree is to support Belarusian filmmaking and tackling issues related to public funding of the cinema. However, the draft decree contains controversial items which are contrary to the declared purpose, as well as to other edicts and decrees," the petition says.

“Inability to meet the conditions set in the decree, the need to pay duties, long discussions - all these factors will turn into a serious obstacle for young film directors’ making movies and contributing to the development of the national cinema. <...>The decree is aimed at creating more bureaucracy in the process of filmmaking," the authors of the appeal state.

In their opinion, passing the draft decree will result in foreign filmmakers’ withdrawal from the Belarusian film market.