Zhanna Gladko’s contribution to this year’s ECLAT Festival project “Echos – Voices from Belarus” is a raw, yet subtle presentation of the young artist’s experience during the turbulent demonstrations and riots in her home country. As one can read in her own description; any footage found provoking of the government could at any time become the reason for torture and imprisonment. This is what makes her art work so strong.
The whole video is recorded with a fragile piece of glass in front of the camera leans, which can be seen as an illustration of the oppression and lack of freedom of speak. Gladko also puts the LGBT+ flag in the spotlight, a symbol that is highly forbidden in Belarus. As a viewer, you get the feeling of seeing something you are not really supposed to see, yet you see it because of a brave young woman that has not let the fear of getting into trouble stop her from revealing the inside of a corrupt system. With the music by Gareth Davis well fitted to the dramaturgy of the movie, the whole expression is summed up by the title itself ‚The sun through trees‘; there is hope as long as one dares to speak out.