When you meet Eva Neklyaeva, you will see a delicate blonde with a beaming smile distancing herself from the hurly-burly of a festival. Unlike a typical curator she does not stay alert to keep looking out for new artists twenty four seven, and yet, in the past couple of years she has become one of the most important people of the Finnish theatre successfully running a big international festival called “Baltic Circle” in Helsinki.
However, she did not move to Finland for cultural reasons, but for political ones. Being an independent culture activist in Minsk and the daughter of a famous Belarusian dissident, Vladimir Neklyaev, she had to run from the country, leaving her parents behind. After running for president, her father, like all of the other independent candidates, got beaten up and put to prison. When released, he was confined to house arrest in the Belarus dictatorship style; he and his wife had to share their small apartment with two KGB agents. “Two in Your House” tells a story about the experience of living under constant surveillance for months on end.
A brilliant performance by Teatr.Doc, the star of Russian documentary theatre, tackles the problem of every-day life under dictatorship in Minsk. We receive an image very different to what we see in the media. It is multidimensional and, therefore, much more personal.