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Generation 328

Generation 328 is a story of mothers who are living everyday life with a single hope: to bring home their unfairly convicted sons.

  • Veranika Nikanava
    Director
  • Veranika Nikanava
    Producer
  • Veranika Nikanava
    Cinematography
  • Susi Dollnig
    Color correction
  • Ignacio Bonet
    Music & Sound Mix
  • Piotr Markielau
    Post-production producers
  • Anice Jee
    Post-production producers
  • Anna Panova
    Post-production producers
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes 34 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Belarus
  • Language:
    Russian
  • Shooting Format:
    Canon C-300 Mark 2
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Veranika Nikanava

Veranika Nikanava is a Belarus-born actress, filmmaker, and activist. She died on 25 July 2019 in an attempt to cross Teklanika river in Alaska at the age of 24.

Nika was deeply concerned about the situation with human rights and liberties in her homeland. She was an active member of a Belarusian community in New York, where she lived since 2017.

“Generation 328” was the last film project of Veranika Nikanava.

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Director Statement

“328” is a character-driven documentary, mainly using cinema verite style along with a sit-down interview with the main character Larisa.

The drug problem is one of the most acute at the moment in the country, over 16.000 young people getting arrested every year. Very often its the case that the government arranges traps – for instance, they create online stores and catch people when they
collect drugs after payments or under cover police often make fake accounts in social media, and reaching out teenagers to ask them for weed. After someone agrees, the police repeat the operation twice for a longe prison sentence. Once a person arrives in prison,
sexual abuse, violence, forced recruitment as informants, forced false testimonies, extortion, and groundless detention, as well as refusing to provide a lawyer is waiting for him. Lukashenko, the president of the country said: “Let’s set such a regime in these
prisons so that they pray for death.”
The director, Nika Nikanava, is originally from Belarus and has a deep passion for telling stories about unheard heroes in the unheard country. Everyone that she knows have or
knows someone who got detained under article 328. The story of Larisa is a rare story in Belarus of ordinary women standing up against government injustice. Her story is universal, she is a mother and she is ready to do what ever it takes to protect her son.