December 24, 2021 +
January 6, 2022

"Belarus - Democracy Fairytale" is an artistic-political action by InterAKT Initiative in cooperation with the KUB e.V., politzek.me and many other actors from the city of Stuttgart, which includes:

– An animated short film based on a story by Anna B. The film was released digitally on December 24, 2021 on social media platforms (YouTube, Facebook) and on our website. The aim was to reach as many people as possible (both in Belarus and Germany and beyond) between December 24, 2021 and the Orthodox Christmas on January 6, 2022.

Youtube

– an action with 1000 postcards to the detainees in Belarus:

1. For analogue distribution in Stuttgart and Esslingen, we distributed sets of cards to write and pass on yourself: "You are my good friend. I will give you 15 stamped and ready-to-go postcards, you send one yourself, 14 you pass it on to good friends". So we hoped to quickly send 1,000 postcards to 1,000 inmates..

The following text could be read on all postcards, both digital and analogue:

Dear friend,

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you! Thank you for your courage, your strength and your endless love for this world. Every day you inspire us to become kinder, more empathetic and wiser. This Christmas we are thinking of you more than ever and would like to send you our admiration with this postcard - a little human attention, the least we can do for you. Take care! We will definitely hug in the new year!

The success of this campaign could be seen in the following Instagram post:

Dear friends, Merry (Orthodox) Christmas! We are very pleased to announce that our postcard campaign as part of the "Belarus - Democracy Fairy Tale" project has come to a successful end today. We sent a total of 1,000 postcards to the inmates from Stuttgart as well as from all over Baden-Württemberg. In addition, the digital postcards (as far as known) were sent from Germany, the Netherlands and France. We would like to thank everyone who took part in the campaign and supported us in the project! We are all the more pleased to announce that the postcards are arriving! We have already received some feedback from Belarus with thanks. Thank you for giving joy, love and attention to the Belarusian prisoners on these days!

2. A digital version in cooperation with politzek.me as a supplement to the short film. This worked like this:

To send a digital postcard, please follow the next steps:
• select a folder in the "Christmas Postcards" column.
• find a digital postcard that you like
• print them out
• fold them
• find the prisoner you want to write to (search here: Politzek)
• scroll down immediately - there you will find the current address of the prisoner • write it down
• write a Christmas wish
• put your card in an envelope
• take them to the post office
• buy a stamp (from Germany: 0.95 cents)
• send them off

DIRECTOR: Jasmin Schädler
CAMERA, EDITING, MONTAGE: Chris Bühler
SOUND DIRECTOR & MIXING: Matthias Schneider-Hollek
FIGURE PLAY & FIGURE CONSTRUCTION: Lukas Schneider
COMPOSITION: Daniel Alcheh
TEXT: Anna B
VOICE OVER: Jonathan Springer
VIOLIN: Olga M.
CIMBALOM: Ekaterina Yukhnova
VOICE: Viktoriia Vitrenko
DESIGN POSTCARDS: Julia Schestag
ARTISTIC DIRECTION & PRODUCTION: Viktoriia Vitrenko

In cooperation with KUB e.V., Amnesty International, the AnStifter Foundation, the Esslingen Office for Equal Opportunities, Theater Rampe, Musik der Jahrhunderte e.V. and the Stuttgart Cultural Office.
Funded by the City of Stuttgart and the AnStifter Foundation.