Belarusian Psycho

2015 · Nikita Lavretski

Dmitry invites Lera and two of her girlfriends to celebrate his 22nd birthday with him at his dacha. When they get there, the birthday boy seems intent on torturing his tiny captive audience with endless self-centred monologues. In the end, Lera is the last guest to stay. The self-proclaimed photographer Dmitry actually invited her to his summerhouse for a very special reason. Shot primarily in black and white with a hand-held camera, the film develops into a unique take on the psycho-thriller genre. [GoEast] Best Belarusian Film at the Minsk International Film Festival (2015). Out-of-Competition Screening at GoEast Film Festival, Wiesbaden (2016). “[S]ets down the self-proclaimed psychopath in the reawakening landscape of Russian excentricity.” — Pierre Leon, Cahiers du Cinema. “Built heavily on improvisation, ‘Belarusian Psycho’ is a product of visual culture of the new millennium when social networks, vlogs, iPhone videos, and amateur pictures create a collage of their own. [...] The movie is full of life, it's funny and also scary, and Lavretski doesn't plan on stopping, which means he will be curious to follow in the future.” — Boris Nelepo, Radio Svoboda. “The singularity of the 21 year old auteur is undeniable.” — Olga Sherwud, BBC Russian Service. “This is a work where the director's cinephilia is self-evident, where his conscious choice is to give something up in order to gain somewhere else.” — Darya Amelkovich, Kultura. “At first you're watching the characters with an ironic smirk, that's when you get a tingling sensation of sincerity, you start getting the warm friendly humour of the film. But then everything falls apart, and gets esoteric, and you start feeling anxious, one can even say, horrified. And when the movie's over all is left is awkwardness, like an afterimage of a faux-pas.” — Maksim Selesnyov, Cineticle.com. “ ‘Belarusian Psycho’ is made out of positives.” — Margarita Degtyar, Maladost. Produced, directed, and edited by Nikita Lavretski. Written by Nikita Lavretski, with contributions from Volha Kavaliova. Shot by Maria Rolskite. Actors: Kristina Bo, Nikita Lavretski, Volha Kavaliova, Kseniya Subbotina, Denis Baranov, Danila Lavretski. Minsk, 2016.