The screening on Wednesday the 17th of July was followed by a Q&A with co-directors Mike Lerner and Martin Herring, and protagonist Franak Viačorka, Chief Political Advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, hosted by Doc Society Director & Head of the Democracy Story Unit, Sandra Whipham.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was a housewife from Belarus when she decided to run for President against the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko.
Stepping into the place of her recently imprisoned husband, little did she guess that she would win the popular vote but be forced to flee her country.
The Accidental President follows Tsikhanouskaya as she is thrust onto the world stage as Belarus’s de facto head of state in exile. Filmed in public and in private as she builds her team and becomes a spokesperson for her people, it reveals a courageous woman whose life has been profoundly transformed, as she grapples with becoming a leader in the most extreme of circumstances.
The screening on Wednesday the 17th of July was followed by a Q&A with co-directors Mike Lerner and Martin Herring, and protagonist Franak Viačorka, Chief Political Advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, hosted by Doc Society Director & Head of the Democracy Story Unit, Sandra Whipham.