Aliaksei Paluyan
Writer / Director
Belarussia
Aliaksei Paluyan was born in Belarus in 1989. He moved to Germany in 2012 and studied film directing at the Kunsthochschule Kassel.
In 2019, his short fiction drama LAKE OF HAPPINESS premiered in Clermont-Ferrand and won numerous awards at international film festivals before being nominated in the short film category at the 2020 European Film Awards and longlisted for Best Live Action Short at the 2021 Oscars.
In 2021, his documentary debut COURAGE premiered at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival (Special) and was subsequently screened at major film festivals including IDFA, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX, HotDocs and Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Aliaksei is a member of the European Film Academy, an alumnus of Berlinale Talents 2022 and co-founder of Belarusian Independent Film Academy.
Project
Incubator
MARIA (35), a Belarusian mother, enters the dubious world of surrogacy in Ukraine in order to free her husband VIKTOR (40) from a nine-year prison sentence in Lukashenko’s system.
But the war that has just broken out drastically changes Maria’s plans, and she and her newborn child – destined for a German couple – are drawn into the dangerous everyday life of war.
