Brace yourself for Branded

The film is a a Ukrainian British production with English subtitles and will be showing on March 15 at Oban Phoenix Cinema, at the Highlands Cinema in Fort William on March 18.

Pauline wrote the original script for BRANDED in 2021, during the rapid take-over of Afghan by the Taliban. It was an expression of support for artists who are censored, imprisoned, or killed by repressive regimes, she told The Oban Times.

Set at some time, in the past, present or the future, in an unspecified country, BRANDED is the story of an artist and her defiance, in the face of atrocity, to defend art and freedom.

Horrifying in its depiction of the persecution of artists in repressive regimes, the struggle of being confined as a prisoner of war is contrasted with the beauty of art, with a joyousness at its heart, explains Pauline who has worked as an avant-garde artist for more than 30 years producing challenging performance works without fear of reprisal although wondering what would happen to her "if a repressive regime took over here," she said.

Branded stresses the need for artistic expression, particularly in times of conflict and repression, and can be taken as a complaint and a warning, Pauline says.

She explained: "I don’t want to have my freedom curtailed or be forced to restrict the work I make due to censorship or dictatorial doctrines. I do not want to have a life when I have to hide myself and my work. No one should be forced to do that. I wrote the script from this perspective; I have been arrested and I am in a prison cell, just for being an artist."

The English version of the film was first screened in London in 2022. Jason McCue, a human rights lawyer, asked if he could screen the film in Kyiv as he was launching a campaign, PayBack4Ukraine.