Another Belarus-made film eyes Oscar

The full-length film The Road by Russian director Dmitry Kalashnikov is competing for an Oscar. The film was produced by the Belarusian company VoliaFilms belonging to director of the film festival Northern Lights Volia Chaikouskaya. The final list of films competing in the category Best Documentary Feature has been recently made public by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

“Naturally, we hoped to be added on the list and prepared the necessary papers. Our American distributor Oscilloscope did a great job helping us prepare everything,” Volia Chaikouskaya said.

Road is a co-production of six countries – Belarus, Russia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the USA. The film poster was designed by Uladzimir Tsesler. The music soundtrack was composed by the Belarusian ethno trio Troitsa and the British band Red Snapper (Volia got aquatinted with the musicians at the festival Mirum and asked for permission to use their music).  

The Road is based on the footage recorded by dashborad cameras from across Russia. It illustrates life a an unbiased observer.

The film's world premier was in 2016 in Amsterdam at the IDFA documentary film festival also dubbed as the "Cannes" of documentary cinematography. In Belarus, the film was screened earlier this year during the Northern Lights festival.

Over the past two years, the film has participated in over 80 film fstivals. In January 2018, it entered the US market in 35 cities with support from Oscilloscope. The film was also reviewed by The New Yorker, Hollywood Reporter, VOX magazine, Esquire, Variety.