Film about Belarus's resistance hero released in Homel

The biography of Tsimokh Vostrykau, a member of the Belarusian resistance movement in the 1940s, is featured in a documentary film released in Homel. Vostrykau died in November 2007 at the age of 84. In 1952, Vostrykau together with three fellows was airlifted into Belarus by a US plane in order to build a clandestine national resistance network.

The team was busted by the Soviet counter-intelligence several days later. Vostrykau received 23 years in the Soviet labor camps in the northern Russia. The DVD was released in February on the initiative of Vostrykau's son, Illya.

He said that the film was made in order to balance against the documentaries produced by the Belarusian state-sponsored channels with assistance of the KGB branch in Homel. According to Ilyya Vostrykau, journalists from the state-owned media came to his father right after he had been hit by a stroke and when he could not talk. On the state TV channels, KGB experts gave a different interpretation of Vostrykau's story.

The new flim includes a detailed narration by Tsimokh Vostrykau himslef about his bioghraphy, recorded in 1995. Back then, he was healthy and could recall everything well. The 60-min film also portrays around 30 photographs from Vostrykau's youth in exile, his last days and burrial.

The film will be distributed by the Minsk-based pro-democracy activists, reports Belapan.