Northern Lights

A radical artist, Lesya (29), gains recognition during the anti-regime protests in Belarus with her raw political performances. When the riot police attack her show and arrest her devoted friend, a terrified Lesya flees to Helsinki. Supported by a documentarist, who soon becomes her lover, Lesya gets a show at an elite gallery. Yet the art world's praise traps her in the label of a political exile. When the Helsinki Biennial Curator rejects her attempt to break free from that image, Lesya is forced to choose between authenticity and success. Her concession backfires and ruins her career. Salvaging what's left of her life, Lesya takes a modest job in Lapland. Physical labor and the sole company of her employer, supportive yet tough, push Lesya to face the question her life was built to avoid: who is she when no one is watching?