Motherland (2023) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: whenever hazing is referred to
Take a Drink: every time somebody rides on a train
Take a Drink: for every letter home
Do a Shot: every time you hear Lukashenko’s name
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
Ukraine isn’t the only former Soviet bloc country feeling the crushing weight of a Communist legacy nor the oppressive influence of Putin’s Russia. To a not insignificant extent, they all are, but arguably none more so than Belarus under the weigh of Putin-propped dictator Alexander Lukashenko, he of recent “sure Vladimir, baby, you can put your nuclear warheads anywhere” fame.
A Toast
If you want to know a nation can countenance such a transparent five-term “President” patsy, look no further than Motherland, which just this week captured top honors at the CPH:DOX documentary film festival. While its erstwhile focus is on the young men who enter the army for their mandatory military service and the mothers who mourn their sons lost to the spirit- and sometimes life-breaking extreme hazing custom of dedovshschina, which creates casualties on one level or another of all who experience it, its true goal is assaying the soul of a nation.
Directors Hanna Badziaka & Alexander Mihalkovich pair this heavy subject material with evocative, atmospheric cinematography that finds the beauty and the irony in the settings this story plays out in; aesthetics-wise, we’re unlikely to see a better produced documentary this year.
However, it’s the people that makes this film cling to you. As they change, hope and despair across the film, you can feel the weight of history and culture that the younger generations can freely see alternatives to, but which this entire societal system is designed to quash. Maybe their Maidan is just around the corner, though- such tactics never succeed forever.
Verdict
Motherland depicts one fount of the seemingly inescapable cyclical violence and abuse that maintains the status quo in Belarus, but also the generation that may break it.
