Belarus: An Ordinary Dictatorship
Mar 18, 2018 | IMDB 6.8
0 min Watch NowDocumentary
It’s the last dictatorship of Europe, caught in a Soviet time-warp, where the secret police is still called the KGB and the president rules by fear. Disappearances, political assassinations, waves of repression and mass arrests are all regular occurances. But while half of Belarus moves closer to Russia, the other half is trying to resist…
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
The World's Worst Place to Be Gay?
There is a Place
Giscard, l'impossible retour
The Overnighters
Gravity is just a habit
Motherland
Night Flight with Frank Zappa, Porn Wars
Revolution: New Art for a New World
Nuevas Raíces
Video Nasties: Draconian Days
Strip and War
Fidel Lemoy
Posted by: İlhan Sami Çomak
Visions of Europe
You Can’t Watch This
Vostrau Belarus
Putin: The New Empire
Hunted Like Animals
Bones of Contention
Chuy, The Wolf Man
SIMILAR MOVIES
The World's Worst Place to Be Gay?
IMDB 8 | Feb , 2011
Scott Mills travels to Uganda where the death penalty could soon be introduced for being gay. The gay Radio 1 DJ finds out what it's like to live in a society which persecutes people like him and meets those who are leading the hate campaign.There is a Place
IMDB 0 | May , 2025
We follow the story of a Bulgarian elderly couple living in a stagnant small village called Balabansko. Taking care of the family house passed down the generations has been their life’s work. What does their future hold and why can’t they let go of the past?Giscard, l'impossible retour
IMDB 9 | Jan , 2014
The Overnighters
IMDB 7 | Oct , 2014
Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.Gravity is just a habit
IMDB 5 | Nov , 2016
The band OK Go gives viewers a look at the behind-the-scenes work -- and 21 flights -- that went into filming their famous zero-gravity music video.Motherland
IMDB 7 | Aug , 2023
Svetlana has lost her son who was found dead while he was in the army. As she tries to shed light on the culture of violence and abuse in the Belarusian military, a group of young friends from the techno underground soon face being drafted themselves. They go to rave parties in undershirts and round sunglasses, but in a moment the party could be over – at least until huge protests break out in the streets following the recent ‘re-election’ of dictator-president and Putin sympathiser, Aleksandr Lukashenko. A glimmer of hope and a promise of change, which only causes the brutality of the authoritarian society to erupt in full force.Night Flight with Frank Zappa, Porn Wars
IMDB 0 | Sep , 1985
Frank Zappa stopped by the Night Flight studios in 1985 to talk about music videos, censorship, the PMRC and what it's like to play in his band.Revolution: New Art for a New World
IMDB 7.5 | Mar , 2017
Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators and performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky and Malevich - pioneers who flourished in response to the challenge of building a new art for a new world, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years and silenced by Stalin's Socialist Realism.Nuevas Raíces
IMDB 0 | Jun , 2025
After fleeing the war in Ukraine, several families rebuild their lives in a village in Seville. Through different conversations and introducing us to their day-to-day, Nuevas raíces shows their process of adaptation, resilience and rooting in a land that, without seeking it, also begins to be home.Video Nasties: Draconian Days
IMDB 7.4 | Mar , 2014
The highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP & VIDEOTAPE documentary, director Jake West and producer Marc Morris continue uncovering the shocking story of home entertainment post the 1984 Video Recordings Act. A time when Britain plunged into a new Dark Age of the most restrictive censorship, where the horror movie became the bloody eviscerated victim of continuing dread created by self-aggrandizing moral guardians. With passionate and entertaining interviews from the people who lived through it and more jaw dropping archive footage, get ready to reflect and rejoice the passing of a landmark era.Strip and War
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2019
The film tells the story of a small family, consisting of a grandfather retired from the army, and his stripper grandson. It is not just a story of a relationship, but rather a reflection of entire Belarus and the post-Soviet, pro-Russian world. Moreover, it's a universally-recognized reflection of a generation gap.Fidel Lemoy
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2020
Equatorial Guinea became independent 51 years ago from Spain. This African country lives under one of the longest-lived dictatorships in the world, Teodoro Obiang, a military man trained in Zaragoza. His regime strongly represses all freedoms, including sexual ones. Franco Spanish laws are still in force in the country, such as the «public scandal». It is not possible to protest on the street and the only LGTB organization in the country has not been able to legalize itself. In addition, the country’s Parliament is studying hardening the current penal code. To denounce the situation, the group «We are part of the world» has collected the voices of the community in a documentary that pays tribute to Fidel Lemoy, one of its best-known faces, who disappeared last year.Posted by: İlhan Sami Çomak
IMDB 7 | Jan , 2016
The story puts İlhan Çomak at the center, even though he is not physically present in the film. It focuses on the 21 years that İlhan spent in prison and his family’s experience of those years without him. The narrative is constructed through the letters İlhan wrote and aims to describe his life, his emotions and longings. The film constructs İlhan’s history through a chronology in the prison but refrains from restricting it only to a “prisoner’s quest for justice”, and rather tells a story of the situations he finds himself in over the years and his emotions and their equivalents in life.Visions of Europe
IMDB 5 | May , 2004
Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.You Can’t Watch This
IMDB 7.5 | May , 2019
Peer through the lens of a high profile political dissident, banished from the online world. After introducing the viewer to each of the five characters, the film recounts how each individual then came to lose their access to social media and the affect it had on them at the time, and since the event. With their stories told, they present the broader issues raised by their media de-platforming and what they foresee in their future in media and the whole of Western Culture at-large.Vostrau Belarus
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2009
Victor Asliuk's contrast of rural and urban life in Belarus examines the tangible differences between the young in the city and the elderly in the village and between modernity and tradition, interspersing modern images with archive material depicting the countryside as it used to be.Putin: The New Empire
IMDB 7.4 | Nov , 2016
Since Russia was brought to its knees in the 1990s by crippling debt and the grip of the oligarchs following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin has made it his mission to return superpower status to Russia. While not partisan to Putin's wrongs, this insightful doc examines the logic and motivations of Putin's vilified regime, and why he is so loved in his homeland.Hunted Like Animals
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2008
A documentary about the atrocities committed against the Hmong people by the Laos government. Shot by Hmong people with cameras provided to them in 2006, this film provides a unique look into one of the worst, and silent, human rights tragedies of the 21st century.Bones of Contention
IMDB 6 | Mar , 2018
A history of the political and social repression carried out by the ruthless regime of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco between 1936 and 1975 that focuses on the lives of gays and lesbians during those dark years and the death of the Spanish gay poet Federico García Lorca.Chuy, The Wolf Man
IMDB 7.4 | Sep , 2015
Jesus 'Chuy' Aceves and a dozen living members of his extended family suffer from the very rare condition of congenital hypertrichosis, meaning they were born with excessive hair on their faces and bodies. Due to their appearance, they suffer from discrimination in all areas of their lives: the children are made fun of at school and abandoned by their 'non-hairy' parents, and the adults cannot find work unless they choose to exhibit themselves as freaks in circuses. This moving and visually arresting documentary is a portrait of Chuy and his family members. It examines their day-to-day lives and their struggle to find love, acceptance and employment.