The country of dreams

An unusual performance in Vilnius: migrants from Russia and other countries tell on the stage of the Lithuanian drama theater about their ordeals

Photo: Teatras.lt / Dmitrij Matvejev

Director Mantas Yangchauskas and his creative group decided on a bold experiment. They persuaded their heroes - not actors, but people of other callings and professions - regularly, twice a month, talk about themselves right on the stage. Five heroes are united only by the fact that they are all migrants. They recall their childhood, those events that forced them to think about leaving their own country, the path to Lithuania and life in a new place. The creators of Dream-Landa cut into pieces of memories, conversations on the phone with relatives who remained somewhere far away, added “personnel” performances at a rally and a dance in the center of refugees in the Lithuanian outback. And from this kaleidoscope they folded, mounted a living in every sense of the performance. How to determine such a movie - 4D, 5D? The most important measurement here is human: each hero does not just speak in the first person, he himself is a prototype. Faisanur is a student from Turkey, her university was closed in Istanbul. Abdo-an IT-specialist from Lebanon, moved with Lithuanian wife from Beirut to Klaipeda-away from the war. Zabi - a businessman from Afghanistan, fled from the Taliban. And Vsevolod Chernozub and Daniil Konstantinov - political activists from Russia, both in their homeland are facing a prison.

Refugees fled

There are few refugees in Lithuania. Such political ones as Chernozub and Konstantinov can be counted on the fingers. There are migrants from neighboring Belarus and Ukraine, but it is little refugees. Even officials admit that Lithuania is a transit country for illegal migrants running from east to west. According to the distribution of the European Commission, 1105 people were supposed to arrive in the country over the past two years. 414 have already been accepted. These are mainly the Syrians who fell into Europe through Greece. But, according to the calculations of observers from non -governmental organizations, more than 300 of them have already fled to Europe. They run away because Lithuanian benefits refugees seem too small: in addition to a single payment, the Lithuanian state pays € 204 per person for the first six months, and then half of this amount. Since October 2017, the country's government also decided to give money to refugees for housing rental.

Vsevolod Chernozub Photo: Teatras.lt / Dmitrij Matvejev

Some illegal refugees are contained in a specialized center in the town of Hand, where they live in free mode. Part - in a paramilitary center for registration of refugees in a Pabrad, located in the former Soviet military unit. In Pabrad - a closed area. But even despite the strict regime, one of the refugees - scores from Afghanistan - allowed to take part in the play and tell on the stage that for two and a half years the Lithuanian authorities cannot decide what to do with it.

According to Zabov, he had a shop in Kabul, and while the NATO soldiers were in the country, the business went well. But then the Taliban came. “A kind of type comes in and says:“ Help NATO soldiers-you are not a Muslim, we’ll kill, ”says Farsi Zami (he knows several phrases in Russian, literally a few words in Lithuania). And then - a long way with smugglers through Tajikistan to Europe. In Lithuania, he gives the smugglers half the amount, $ 5 thousand, and decides to stay, is registered in the center in Pabrad. But the smugglers want to get the full amount and forcibly, according to him, are taken further - in the bottom of the truck, under the washing machines. So he makes the path to Germany, from there to France, as a result, he is in London. But in Britain he is detained and returned to where the bang was registered - to Lithuania.

“When my friends come to visit me, I tell them:“ People here are cold and afraid of strangers, but they are not to blame for this. This is a difficult legacy of the Soviet era "

About them and to themselves

For such as Zam, Europe, despite all the stereotypes (“many prostitutes and gays”, “everything is allowed - sex, alcohol, drugs” - they also sound in the play with the voices of the face of the crowd “behind the scenes”), all the same - a place where you can live securely, safely and freely. “I was told by one Arab-Rebel that they call Europe among themselves Dreamland ( in the lane from the English“ Fairytale Country. ” -NT),” explains the name of the play Mantas Yangchausskas. But the director does not pretend at all that this country of dreams is Lithuania. A one and a half hour show on the stage is not an agitation made by order of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, but an attempt to objectively look at the situation on both sides - both migrants and the local population. In addition, both sides are here in the hall.

Heroes do not seek to speak only compliments of their new homeland. Faisanur, who studies at the University of Vilnius, still feels embarrassed in a hijab on the street. It all the time seems to her that she is considered a potential terrorist. “When my friends come to visit me, I tell them:“ People here are cold and afraid of strangers, but they are not to blame for this. This is a difficult legacy of the Soviet era, ”the Turkish woman honestly admits.

Faisanur and basting photos: Teatras.lt / dmitrij matvejev

Abdo is somewhat simpler - he has a Lithuanian wife, two children. He lacks heat on the street and warmth in communication. But, he says, as soon as he begins to speak in a lithic one, “Laba Diena!” Greetings to greetings. ( “Good afternoon.” - NT), the Lithuanians willingly open towards him. It laughs that due to the “textured” appearance-Abdo is a tall, burning brunette with large facial features-he is often mistaken for Italian.

Spectators see and hear not only “living foreigners”: the heroes on the stage, according to the director, become a mirror in which the Lithuanians should see themselves, hear an opinion about themselves from the outside (and this, by the way, is a special type of feat for migrants, who usually do not consider correct and correctly publicly criticizing the host of the country).

“People are like people, they are not running from a good life, but scary, everywhere there are terrorist attacks. What if we will have? What to do?" - Voices whisper on Lithuanian, as if reading the thoughts of the audience aloud. And these questions, which in Europe, are now asking themselves not only Lithuanians, there are still few clear answers - mostly assumptions. But, it seems, the most correct of them is to integrate, give the opportunity to learn the language, arrange for work and accept in your society.

“From rich Russia to our poor Lithuania? What is there to do? And here in the politics of the mess, they steal both there and there, only, in Russia, the scale is different. "

Hello from Dismaland

Seva and Daniil have no problems with appearance - it is easy for them to dissolve in a local crowd. But, oddly enough, they are more complicated than those who fled from the war to explain why they emigrated. Despite the fact that, according to public opinion polls , in Lithuania, about 60% of citizens consider the Putin regime the main threat to the country, many in Lithuania do not understand those who come to them from Russia. “From rich Russia to our poor Lithuania? What is there to do? And here, in politics, a mess, they steal both there, only there, in Russia, others, ”migrants from Russia often hear. Mantas Yangchausskas, inviting two Russians to his performance at once, gives an exhaustive answer to all these puzzled questions.

“You will live in an elite chamber. 5 people. From the window - view of the embankment. You will live in the former "youngster". 20 people. The beds are shorter than usual, their legs stick out of all. You will live where there are not enough beds, you sleep in turn ... "

Daniil Konstantinov, 33 years old, a lawyer by profession, honestly admits that he joined the nationalists ( was the leader of the Moscow Defense League, now the head of the Russian European movement. - NT), defended the rights of Russians. At the rally, the audience hear his anti -Putin speech "performed by the author." On false charges of murder in March 2012, Konstantinov found himself in the “sailor silence”: “Wow in an elite chamber. 5 people. From the window - view of the embankment. You will live in the former "youngster". 20 people. The beds are shorter than usual, their legs stick out of all. You will live where there are not enough beds, you sleep in turn. You will live where the walls are pouring, where dirt, mold. Throwing from one chamber to another is a way to create discomfort, break the will. ”

Daniil Konstantinov Photo: Teatras.lt / Dmitrij Matvejev

It was a miracle to prove that Daniil was innocent: the murder was supposedly committed on December 3, 2011 - just on his mother’s birthday. He spent that evening with his family and guests in a restaurant. Therefore, in October 2014, the court condemned him for a certain hooligan for three years and immediately released on an amnesty (in honor of the anniversary of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). And Daniel immediately flew to Thailand: "From the prison hell - to the tropical paradise." Then Georgia, Lithuania.

Vsevolod Chernozub, 31 years old, learned to be a psychologist, but became interested in politics - became a member of the political council of "solidarity". He distributed leaflets, participated in promotions and rallies. And the factthat in Russia it is not as easy to go to the rally as it seems in modern Lithuania is also to explain: “We then conducted rallies in defense of the right to go to rallies. We seem to have this right, on paper, and in life it seems to be not. We stated that we want to hold a rally to hold rallies. And we were forbidden to a rally in defense of the right to rallies. But we still went to the forbidden rally against the ban on rallies. Such an absurdity. "

Chernozub fled in early 2013 from a possible persecution in the “swamp business” - through Ukraine, where his grandmother grew up, Belarus and also to Lithuania.

“The British artist Banksy made Dimaland Park ( from the English,“ oppressive, gloomy. ” - NT) - like“ Disneyland ”, only a horror park, - after the premiere, Vsevolod explains why he agreed to participate in the project. “It is very important for me to convey to people in Lithuania, especially my age, who no longer found Soviet times, a simple idea: if you do not follow their country, if you do not fight corruption, with political cynicism, ignore the policy, believing that it does not concern you, any Dreamland can turn into a horror country.”

Start life again

Zaby in Kabul left a wife and three children. When he calls, the audience hears the conversation in the record - his wife does not talk to him, he immediately passes the phone to his son. The child is also reluctant to communicate with his father, the conversation breaks off. The hazard is not needed here, in Lithuania, nor already there - in Afghanistan. He really hopes that participation in the play (and the Afghan in the theater was generally for the first time in his life) Lithuanian authorities will be credited to him and will still be allowed to stay.

“For two years now I have been accepting sedatives and antidepressants. It is hardly possible to fall asleep without medicine "

Abdo recently received a Lithuanian passport and feels happy. Feisanur says he wants to stay in Lithuania. She is only 20 - all her life is ahead.

Daniel has a family here too. He hopes that life will improve, but misses the house where he cannot return. He, who has received a legal education in Russia, is impossible to get a profession here - another legal system plus language. And this is a suspended state, when it is very difficult to plan the future, it is strongly, in his words, it hits the psyche: “For two years now I have been accepting sedatives and antidepressants. It is almost impossible to fall asleep without medicine. ”

And Seva recently thrown a jacket and a backpack with which he passed “Fire and Water” in Moscow. The fashionable jacket is light and warm, which he once dreamed of, stained at one of the rallies, when the Russian authorities deliberately smeared the square. The backpack was a pillow in the “Monkey”, and two years ago Seva drove the urn with her grandmother's ashes in it when he went to Ukraine to bury her. “I threw a backpack and a jacket, because I thought: you can’t always cling and store for something. If you start life again, you need to start again. Both the backpack and my jacket are now new, ”Chernozub sums up by the almost biblical parables.

Leave the cargo of the past in the homeland, which had to be left, enthusiastically dive into the stream of a new life in a new place and, perhaps, even safely make plans for the future - here it is Dreamland, which so often remains an inaccessible dream for migrants. But any attempt to talk about it frankly, literally face to face is an important experience not only for themselves, but also for those who accept them.