childhood ends when you give birth to a new human being
and truly, for the first time, become aware of your mortality
you realize that someday you’ll cease to be
that you have passed on something very important and fragile to this little one
something vital
I would like it to be immortal, invulnerable
but alas…
it’s just as precious and imperfect as my very own — my only
life


childhood ends
when you say “we are just kids”
as a metaphor, not literally
you say “we are just kids” when you long to be carefree and light-hearted
when you can no longer bear all the responsibility
and you just want to lie on the grass with clover and dandelions
and read a book your mother left you —
“Dinka parts with her childhood”

we are just kids
we sit on the clouds, counting down to the apocalypse
or the climate collapsing
we wander around the city aimlessly
thinking about anarcho-pacifism and apoliticism
we are just kids
who don't want to rush
who rebel against the establishment
like The Sex Pistols
and post deliberately raw
photos
on Instagram to promote real life

we are just kids
who want to live real life
to love, hold hands,
to be happy
not to be afraid
not to be retraumatized by the news
every other day
we are just kids
we want to leave
the light
not the shadow
behind us

Volia Chajkouskaya
Founder and Director
of the Northern Lights Film Festival

The Northern Lights Film Festival has remained one of the few film festivals that, despite the pandemic and repression, has not missed a single year and continues to run in the format of an international review, with a carefully curated program, retrospectives, its own manifesto, discussions, and guest stars.

We don't stop day after day, year after year—for nine years now. Because if we stop, it will be challenging to get back into the regular rhythm and impossible to start over from scratch.

We need your support to show incredible films from the Baltics and Scandinavia every year. To introduce Belarusians to Ukrainian cinema as part of the Ukraine Mon Amour program.

To invite a top-notch international jury to watch the Belarusian competition, thereby expanding awareness of the very fact of the existence of Belarusian cinema.

We need your support to talk about Belarusian people through cinema, through the universe of the film festival and the networking opportunities it provides.

To bring Belarus closer to bright changes, to the values of freedom and equality, and to convey its story through the language of cinema and through the lips of renowned foreign directors whose films we feature on Northern Lights.

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