Belarusian cinema: cultural heritage as a factor of sovereignty

The key to the successful development of Belarusian film production and film distribution is still the leading role of the state as the main customer and investor of cinematographic projects. Such a situation, on the one hand, provides the industry with a guaranteed state order, determining its stability in a market economy and acute external competition. On the other hand, researchers and market professionals note the lack of flexibility of the industry and the consideration of film production tastes and changing interests of the Belarusian audience. The use of cinematography as the most effective tool of the national creative industries, as a propaganda resource in order to destabilize the socio-political life of the country, can be considered proven. Such goals are achieved by creating pseudo-documentary films about domestic political events in the republic. The video sequence, editing and lexical techniques used by the authors of these films are often extremist in nature, with the aim of inciting civil conflict. The Belarusian society and the state still manage to successfully resist external information aggression. One of the mental pillars of the Belarusian cinema was and remains films about the Great Patriotic War as a reflection and embodiment by artistic means of the national memory of the people. Films about the war have become and continue to remain an important part of the intangible cultural heritage of the Belarusian people, influencing the preservation of social stability. Currently, there is a dependence of the Belarusian film market on the creative sector of the Russian Federation. This dependence manifests itself at all stages of the film production cycle: from the acquisition of rights to rent foreign films to their dubbing, copying and advertising. The common linguistic and cultural space of the two friendly countries creates a unique window of opportunity for Belarusian film distribution companies: to purchase films in Russia that have already passed all stages of complex technological and legal preparation, thus reducing costly logistics.