Focus: Borders is a competition dedicated to medium and feature-length fiction, animated, and hybrid films distinguished by a strong authorial voice and a search for original ways of telling stories about the contemporary world. The diversity of approaches to long-form cinema presented in the selected works proves that film still has much to offer. This year’s competition features 8 titles.

Under the Grey Sky, reż. Mara Tamkovich (Polska) 2024, 81’, 15+

In 2020, the sky over Belarus grew darker than ever before. After blatantly rigged elections, Belarusian citizens took to the streets — and Lukashenko’s regime did not leave their defiance unanswered. When Lena reports on the brutal suppression of a protest, she becomes an enemy of the system — one that will stop at nothing to break the rebellious journalist and her husband, who dreams of escaping abroad.
Inspired by the true story of Belarusian journalists Igor Ilyash and Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Mara Tamkovich’s film was made in Poland, yet it speaks directly from a country engulfed in the darkness of an inhuman dictatorship. The director crafts a nuanced portrait of people living under oppression – and of how such life slowly consumes relationships, emotions, and the human soul.

The screening of “Under the Grey Sky” serves as a subtle but powerful reminder that, right next door, our immediate neighbors are living through realities we wish existed only in dystopian fiction. The film stands both as an artistic tribute to the real people suffering in Belarus, and as a warning to audiences abroad — that brutal, dirty history is still unfolding, and we can never be sure we won’t one day be caught in it. Yet there is something deeply heartening in the very act of making this film — a reminder that, despite everything, we still create and watch cinema that carries messages of vital importance.
The film awardwed at the PFF in Gdynia and the KFDF Młodzi i film.

After the screening, we invite you to join a discussion.
Audio description version available.