This Ukraine Will never Stop
, Women on the Verge of Gender Equality
This Ukraine Will never Stop, Women on the Verge of Gender Equality
Ukraine, Lithuania
A contemporary filmmaker cannot point their camera towards a war scene without having the awareness that the resulting images will be swallowed by a flux of almost identical images, which document violence and destruction committed concomitantly in other parts of the world. Iryna Tsilyk, the director of “The Earth is Blue as an Orange,” resolves this difficulty by focusing on a young Ukrainian girl’s film school admission – a major event in her life and her family’s, but which becomes insignificant when placed in the larger context of their existence, namely the fact that they live in war-torn Donbas. This apparent contradiction between micro and macro actually turns out to be a case of concordance, as the two spheres contaminate one another: the war without a doubt raises the stakes of the admission exam, because it represents a way to leave behind the uncertainty of daily life, punctuated by alarming news and night attacks; and the protagonist’s passion for cinema, as well as her determination, once admitted to college, to make a film about the situation of those who remained at home, is an occasion to re-experience, at times in a comical tone, other times with tears in one’s eyes and voice, the trauma caused by the conflict. Unlike the debutant filmmaker, who reenacts events directly linked to war, the camera which in turn observes her lingers over the rather unusual, insignificant details, which dwell in the fringes or in the interstices of the shooting itself, thus proving that what lies outside the frames of the images of war actually speaks most eloquently about it. (Liri Alienor Chapelan)
AUDIO: Ukrainian, Russian
SUBTITLE: Romanian, English
awards and festivals
Seattle International Film Festival 2021
Sundance Film Festival 2020 - Directing Award
Tallgrass International Film Festival 2020 - DOXX Spotlight Award
Ukrainian Film Critics Awards 2020 - Best Documentary
Dokufest International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2020 - Human Rights Award
Millennium Docs Against Gravity 2020 - Award for Best Cinematography, Bydgoszcz ART.DOC Award, Grand Prix Bank Millenium Award
Docudays UA International Documentary Human Rights Film Festival 2020 - DOCU/UKRAINE Award, DOCU/WORLD Award
Biografilm Festival 2020 - Hera Award
Reykjavik International Film Festival 2020 - Special Mention
Zurich Film Festival 2020 - Special Mention
Berlin International Film Festival 2020
São Paulo International Film Festival 2020
Minsk International Film Festival “Listapad” 2020
ZIFF.ZINEBI First Film 2020 - Award for best film
Angers European Premiers Plans Film Festival - Jury Special Mention
Al Este Central and Eastern European Film Festival - Best Film