HANDBOOK

Director's Statement

When I read the eyewitness reports for the first time, I quickly realised that this was not mere police violence, as already known from Belarus, Russia or other countries. It was a carefully planned and systematically carried out operation throughout the country with one goal – to break a person's dignity.
Immediately I was interested in the question of how a guide to this process could look like today in Belarus, my homeland. How does one conceive of such a system? What does it take to deform an individual in this way? What details does one pay attention to?
In this sense, through the interviews with the victims, I also wanted to look into the minds of the architects of this system. With detached use of cinematic tools, the methodology of repression is to be played out for the viewer, so that the word police violence, which has become almost abstract in the meantime, can be dissected down to the last detail. The police acted brutally against the demonstrators – a common headline in the German and Western European media about the events in August. But what does that mean exactly in the case of Belarus? What does it mean to stand on your knees for five hours? What does it mean to spend two nights in a 15 square metre room with 47 people? What does twelve litres of water per 124 people look like?
I don't ask myself these questions very carefully when I just read or listen to the interviews in the news portals. I do perceive the information, but it remains only approximate. Twelve litres of water per 124 people – I understand that this is very little, but only through an exact calculation and visualisation (about 100 ml, i.e. two large shot glasses per person) do I realise how little. This understanding creates a new emotion in me that seems clearer.
In the 30 minutes of the film, I want to pursue precisely these details in order to build an accurate mosaic of this inhuman crime from them.