"Are you ready to give these courts the right to take lives?" A film about the death penalty was showed in Warsaw
The discussion and screening of the film The Life of David Gale took place at the Belarusian Youth Hub in Warsaw. The film speaks about the death penalty, and the event is dedicated to International Day against the Death Penalty, October 10.
The film was shown as part of a legal film club run by Maksim Palavinka:
"It seems to me that in the professional community I belong to, among lawyers, especially after 2020, the primary argument should not only concern the miscarriage of justice but also the use of the court to implement political will, desires of the authorities, and so on. That is, if you see what has been done and what is being done in the courts, this question cannot but arise: 'Are you ready to give these courts the right to take lives?'. The miscarriage of justice has partially become a strong argument for me to change attitudes towards the death penalty."
According to Andrei Paluda, coordinator of the campaign Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus, films such as The Life of David Gale are worth watching — this was also shown by the discussion that took place afterward.
- Andrei Paluda
"We talked after watching the film, and I even discovered new interesting thoughts for myself, which were voiced by the participants of the event," said Andrei Paluda. "And those questions — related to ethics, law, values — that this film raised and that were voiced during our discussion, this is what pushes me to watch this film again, and every time I see some new things too.
It is also worth noting that the issue of the death penalty exists on the emotional plane — we always talk about it. And here is this movie with a twisted plot. And the director elicits various emotions through it, which allows us to reason not only from the point of view of the state machine, but also considering the human factor."
