PICKUNY, BELARUS

Victoria and Victor have their ritual every All Saints’ day, one of the very few days when the border crossing point in their village Pickuny opens for people to visit the cemetery, which has been cut off from the village by the border demarcation line and the fence afterwards. Victoria’s father passed away when the fence was just put up and the new rules required a visa to cross, so they were unable to attend his funeral. Relatives from the other side brought the coffin close to the fence so that Victoria could at least see her father one last time and say goodbye. The border patrol refused to even pass the flowers they had brought. For them, every year the 1st of November feels like finally going to that funeral, and the rest of the year is spent waiting for that day and that traumatic memory to fade away.