Press releases

“This time we will have more countries. But since the festival will last for just two days instead of the traditional four or five days, some films were not included in the competition program,” Yuri Gorulev said.

By the way, one movie that will participate in the competition will be presented during the retrospective screening of the Magnificat best films at the National Art Museum of Belarus from 23 November till 5 December. The film Ptirichka by Irina Vasilyeva (Russia) is about the opera singer Lina Mkrtchan. In the 1990s she was the first singer from the post-Soviet Russia to perform in the Vatican. She gathered crowds at the best music halls around the world. But the singer gave up her opera career and began to sing in a church choir.

The Magnificat festival is the review of the works of Belarusian and foreign cinema and TV masters aimed at the evangelization of the society, the support of universal human values of different Christian traditions. The forum was first held in 2005. Last year's edition of the festival featured films from over 16 countries, including Bulgaria, Germany, Georgia, Canada, Latvia, Russia, and Ukraine.

The festival is held under the patronage of the Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops of Belarus. It was established by the Roman Catholic association Signis-Belarus, the Stop Kadr studio, the Vitebsk Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and the Dialogue magazine.