Under the Hood (2013)

In Belarus , some battle for democracy, social justice and civil rights, while others struggle just to survive. Under the Hood brings us on a journey through a country where the secret police is still known as the KGB and gathering in public to do nothing is considered a crime. The film takes us from the protests and secret opposition meetings of the capital, Minsk, to the horse-drawn carts and hand-tilled fields of the countryside, following the lives of businessman Yuri, villager Lyudmila, youth opposition leader Franak and journalists Eduard and Viktor, among others. Their stories, of normality punctuated by bureaucracy and occasional brutality, remind us how close Belarus is to the rest of Europe... and how very far away.