August 2018

Heading Hero’s Long Return

The film “Ignacy Domeyko. A long return” about the outstanding Belarusian geographer, ethnologist and enlightener, whose fate connects Belarus and Chile, had its premiere in cinemas in Vilnius, Minsk and regional centers in July. Director Alexei Rakovich and the film crew of the Workshop of Vladimir Bokun historical films studio had been working on it for a year.

Ignacy Domeyko’s relatives from Australia flew to Vilnius for the premiere. People even stood in the aisles in crowded cinemas. The film “Ignacy Domeyko. Long Return” was shown on the ONT channel in autumn of 2018 as part of a large-scale TV project “100 Names of Belarus”.

Ignacy Domeyko is one of the most famous Belarusians in the world; he was born on July 31, 1802 in the estate of Malaya Medvedka, Novogrudsky povet. The participant of the liberation movement in Belarus, the national hero of Chile, forced to leave his homeland, the world-renowned mineralogical scientist, long-time rector of the University of Chile, he left a noticeable mark in various branches of human knowledge, e.g. mineralogy and geology, physics, chemistry and metallurgy, geography and ethnography, botany, and zoology.

An asteroid, a mountain range, a city, educational institutions of Chile, minerals and several plants bear the name of Ignacy Domeiko. The scientist returned to his lesser motherland at the age of 82. All the bells tolled in Santiago on the day of his death.

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