A young couple makes a daring decision – and their child ends up being the only student in class, for nine years. What looks like a brutal social experiment is simply the consequence of choosing the Belarusian language of education over Russian. The family’s values lead to persecution, exile, and true resilience.

Balkan Watchers 2024

This is a story about a girl, raised to be different. To speak the native language of her country, and to be an active citizen. In Belarus, ruled by a pro-Soviet dictator Lukashenka, these simple choices are not simple at all. Her parents had to fight for Yalinka’s constitutional right to study in Belarusian and not Russian. For nine years Yalinka was confined to solitude, being the only student in her class.  The Belarus uprising of 2020 is a turning point for thousands of families. Yalinka, together with her parents, flees the country, following criminal prosecution of her father. They start a new life in Poland, helplessly observing how Belarus falls deeper and deeper into the totalitarian trap and eventually becomes an ally of Russia in its inhumane invasion of Ukraine. Facing yet another challenge of adapting into a new country, and learning to navigate adult life on her own, she has her cultural identity to rely on. Was her sacrifice worth it? Yalinka is slowly trying to find her own voice.