The Belarusian animated film industry turns 50: From a Neznaika puppet to the first cartoon musical

The Belarusian cartoon industry has turned 50! Its history began in 1971 when the production director Vladimir Golikov came to Minsk to make the country’s first puppet animated film Neznaika-Poet [Neznaika the Poet] under the aegis of Studio Ekran at the film studio Belarusfilm. This event started the history of the national cartoon industry. By 2021 Belarusian cartoon artists had made about 300 films using various techniques – puppet films, drawings, sand-based films, claymation films…

At present the national film studio Belarusfilm makes 8-11 animated films per annum. About 40 animated cartoon artists work at the studio and many of them are employed in every project. Belarusian authors participate in prestigious international festivals and their works often become a prominent event in the world animation industry. One of the latest films by Natalya Darvina – Lagodny Vouk [kindhearted wolf] – was recognized as the best film at the children’s contest during the Minsk International Film Festival Listapad. Together with another film Padanne Pra Gusli [a tale of the gusli] – it was screened at a festival in Hiroshima and became one of the world’s best animated films. In 2013 the Belarusian Natalya Petkevich won a Golden Eagle for the animated film Bach, which was recognized the best one in Russia.

Belarusian cartoon artists are in for a grand premiere. A presentation of the country’s first Belarusian full-length animated musical film Zvezdy Sedmogo Neba [stars of the seventh sky] is scheduled to take place this spring. The film consists of six chapters and was created over a period of more than five years. The director Yelena Turova noted that it is a story about the eternal things, about how important it is for people to stay kind, to believe in good things, to look up instead of down.

Nearly all cartoon artists of Minsk worked on the film. As many as 45 songs were written for the film and lots of music. The characters were voiced by Belarusian pop stars (Teo, Olga Ryzhikova, Svetlana Zalesskaya-Ben, Anatoly Dlussky, Georgy Volchek, Marina Varenich), signing actors (Dmitry Pustilnik, Yelena Dubrovskaya, Natalya Dmitriyeva), and talented children (Diana Krasutskaya and Yaroslav Borovoi). The composer Leonid Shirin starred in this film. Yelena Turova voiced many of the little characters. After finishing the large-scale project the director went on to start another full-length film – Pesnya Sirin [Sirin’s song] – which will be an experiment for Belarusian cartoon artists in many aspects.

An anniversary program began in March with the screening of Belarus’ first full-length animated film Prygody Nestserki [Nestserka’s adventures], which was produced by the director Igor Volchek at Belarusfilm in 2013. An exhibition dedicated to the art of the artist and director Alla Matyushevskaya was opened in the Belarusian Cinema History Museum in Minsk on 30 March. She has produced a number of films over the course of her movie industry career…