Tribeca: 'Under the Grey Sky' Is an Unsettling Look at the Silencing of Journalists

In the opening minutes of Mara Tamkovich’s debut feature, Under the Grey Sky, we are thrown right into scenes of protest. Lena (Aliaksandra Vaitsekhovich), an independent journalist, is livestreaming the action from an apartment above, with the help of her camera operator, Olya (Palina Chabatarova). The protest quickly goes from peaceful to violent, as police in riot gear arrive and unleash a brutal crackdown of the demonstration. Every frame is suddenly masked in tear gas, and in the midst of what’s happening below, Lena and Olya duck and cover from a police drone. Then, the internet cuts out. The first few minutes of Tamkovich’s film, which she also wrote, is full of chaos and anxiety, ending with the sudden crash of the front door as police burst into the apartment. And just like the live stream, the scene abruptly cuts - but it ends with the sound of screams.

Under the Grey Sky is based on the true story of Belarusian journalist, Katsyaryna Andreeva, and her arrest following her reporting on the 2020 protests in the country’s capital, Minsk. That year saw the largest anti-government protests in Belarusian history. These protests only grew with more outrage after a rigged presidential election that saw President Alexander Lukashenko elected for a sixth term in office, and the death of a protestor following a brutal beating by plain-clothes police officers. As a result of these protests, the police launched an assault on all participants, which culminated in a violation of human rights through the detainment and torture of protesters and journalists across Belarus.

Following the scene where Lena and her colleague, Olya, are discovered by police, the film shifts its focus to Lena’s husband, Ilya (Valentin Novopolskij). Panic and helplessness seem to control his every movement as he makes a frantic phone call and drives to the police station to try to find his wife, with screams reverberating from inside its walls. While we only spend a few moments with her, the audience feels just as anxious as Ilya to know what has happened to Lena. Every moment he spends alone in silence is filled with worry, anger, and sadness. This film is one so full of uncertainty. You don’t know what will happen to Lena and you don’t know what will happen to Ilya as he fights for her freedom. At any moment, they could find their lives taken away from them.

Flashbacks to before the film’s events provide a glimpse of their home life together, as well as the lead-up to its opening minutes. In these flashback sequences, you can already feel the risks that Lena’s reporting will mean. Even before the protests really hit their boiling point, Ilya suggests they move because he can see how difficult it will become for journalists like them. However, just like the journalists who have stayed on the front lines of Ukraine and Palestine, Lena stays for the dedication she has for her work and the dedication she has for documenting truth. When a court battle eventually ensues, we see Ilya risking imprisonment to support his wife. Cops make threats and present ultimatums, and Lena says he should leave the country for his own protection. But, naturally, he doesn’t listen. Attacks on journalists and censorship happen worldwide, and it happens because the government sees them as a threat. Lena’s imprisonment is simply revenge for documenting what they don’t want the public to see. It’s a regime’s suppression of freedoms.

Through their characters, we see the heroism of journalists and the enduring strength of love. We’re sucked into what feels like a hopeless situation through the eyes of a husband and wife separated by a regime’s brutality. The audience grows to care for this couple immensely, especially thanks to their performances. Novopolskij conveys moments of absolute heartbreak while he tries to survive another day for Lena. Vaitsekhovich and Novopolskij are fire together. There’s a powerful moment they share when Ilya is visiting Lena in prison for the first time; they spend quite a long stretch of this reunion not speaking at all. So much is spoken between them with just a look, and Vaitsekhovich does this throughout the film, using her eyes to communicate so much more than words could. She’s a truly arresting lead.

At a time when journalism in the United States is showing great bias, skewing the facts or just reporting flat-out lies, many are beginning to rely on sources that, like Lena, are right in the middle of the action. The truth can only be told by those who actually see it, and there’s heroism in journalists who fight back against the risk of capture or violence. Under the Grey Sky paints a chilling portrait of political repression, with familiar scenes of protest and police violence that are currently happening in cities across the world. We have seen the lengths law enforcement will go to hide the truth, but we also see the lengths that journalists will go to tell it. It’s a film set in a specific time and place, but it’s universal as a call for the importance and necessity of this kind of reporting — no matter the risks.