Company of Steel by Yuliia Hontaruk
Docudays UA in association with the Ukrainian Institute presents May 21 a showcase of four new creative documentaries at production or post-production stage. “The section we curated were all started before the current war but each of them was highly impacted by the events that are threatening the existence of our country. These 4 exceptionally cinematic projects present the reality of Ukraine before and during the war,” write the two organisations.
The Ukrainian Institute is a public body that promotes Ukrainian culture internationally. Docudays UA is the main Ukrainian documentary international film festival.
In a joint statement sent to Business Doc Europe, Ukrainian Institute’s Head of Film Natalie Movshovych and Docudays’ Darya Bassel (Head of DOCU/PRO Industry Platform) write:
“In 2020 together with DocudaysUA we organized the presentation of Ukrainian documentary projects at Cannes Docs for the first time. It was the year of Covid outbreak and Marche du Film went online, but we believed it was still necessary during a world crisis such as a pandemic to keep Ukrainian filmmakers integrated into the international film industry.
“With the full-scale invasion and all its consequences, the importance of the Ukrainian showcase tripled. Today every presentation of Ukrainian projects at the top platform for film professionals such as Cannes film market is a chance for filmmakers to complete, promote and distribute their films.
“For us it is of high importance that the Ukrainian industry can continue its rapid development, survive these terrible times and not to roll back. Especially, if we talk about the documentary film scene, which is very powerful in Ukraine, and documentary filmmakers, most of which are using their skills to document what is happening now.
“We are very grateful to Cannes Docs for this opportunity to spotlight Ukrainian docs and make these projects at the final stages of production visible to the international doc community, so they can get all the support they need right now.”
UKRAINE DOCS-IN-PROGRESS 2022
Company of Steel (Zalizna Sotnya)
Directed by: Yuliia Hontaruk
Produced by: Yuliia Hontaruk (#Babylon`13, Ukraine), Ivanna Khitsinska (#Babylon`13, Ukraine), Alexandra Bratyshchenko (#Babylon`13, Ukraine), Igor Savychenko (Directory Films, Ukraine)
Country of production: Ukraine
Runtime: 110 mins
Expected release: December, 2022
Production stage: Post Production
Budget: €161,009 (50% in place)
Looking for: Sales agents/distributors, co-producers, gap financing
Synopsis: After enduring horrors during the War in the Eastern part of Ukraine, three young Ukrainian war veterans return home. They try to understand how to live in civil life and to win their private wars. But in February 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine started and they are faced with new challenges of reality. What experience do the heroes gain in these wars, how are they initiated by accepting death?
Director profile: Yuliia Hontaruk is a Ukrainian documentary and feature film director and producer. 2013: Co-founder creative association BABYLON 13. 2014: Member of the Ukrainian Union of Cinematographers. 2016: Member Ukrainian Film Academy
Producer’s profile: Babylon 13 is an association of independent filmmakers formed at the beginning of the Revolution of Dignity. The Babylon 13 films traveled around the world, with more than 400 screenings. The films were also broadcasted on the world’s leading TV channels, such as the BBC, TVP, ZDF, RAI and so on. For more than 8 years of its activity Babylon13 has released 7 full-length documentaries on the revolution, annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbass.
Lagoons: Battle for Paradise (Лимани. Бій за Рай)
Directed by: Serhii Lysenko
Produced by: Anna Kapustina (Albatros Communicos, Ukraine), Oleksandra Kravchenko (Ukraine)
Country of production: Ukraine
Runtime: 75 mins
Expected release: October, 2023 (date is subject to change due to the war of Russia in Ukraine)
Production stage: Post Production
Budget: €198,300 (80% in place)
Looking for: Festivals, sales agents/distributors, buyers, gap financing, strategic guidance
Synopsis: During one year, the wheel of wildlife at Tuzly Lagoons Nature Park in Ukraine comes full circle, as people who want to live as a part of Nature fight those who only want to use it. Heavenly landscapes inhabited by rare animals and birds become a stronghold for the dangerous struggle of Ivan and Iryna, the two park managers and activists, against the poachers, illegal developers and corrupted politicians.
Director profile: Serhiy Lysenko studied film directing at the Kyiv University of Theatre, Cinema, and Television. From 2005 until 2011 he worked as a director and screenwriter of television films. In 2012, he founded his own company and began making documentary films. At present, he works as a filmmaker and film editor. Currently based in Kyiv, filming for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the frontline of the Russian war against Ukraine.
Producer profile: Anna Kapustina is a producer based in Ukraine and the founder of the production company ALBATROS COMMUNICOS. In 2003-2014 produced commercials, TV programs and reality-shows. Since 2014 she is a producer of the Ukrainian film community BABYLON 13. Selected participant at IDFAcademy Summer School, Dok.Incubator and B2BDoc. Her latest film The Earth Is Blue As An Orange won The Best Director Award at the Sundance FF.
Producer profile: Since 2011, Oleksandra Kravchenko has worked in the film industry as a communications director (Odesa International Film Festival, Arthouse Traffic film distribution company), executive marketing manager (Animagrad animation studio/FILM.UA Group), and independent producer (ESSE Production House, DGTL RLGN, Albatros Communicos, Moon Man).
Listening to the World (Прислухаючись до світу)
Directed by: Yelizaveta Smith
Produced by: Eugene Rachkovsky, Olha Beskhmelnytsina (TABOR, Ukraine)
Country of production: Ukraine
Runtime: 90 mins
Expected release: Late 2023
Production stage: Production
Budget: €205,500 (4% in place)
Looking for: Co-producers, sales agents / distributors
Synopsis: Iva doesn’t hear the world because of her disability. She is an art curator and human-right activist trying to find her place in the world and make it hear her. But unfortunately, she and her son Mykyta face the war and are evacuated from bombed Kharkiv to Lviv and then to Germany, where they, as well as thousands of other Ukrainians, try to find peace until the war ends.
Director profile: Yelizaveta Smith graduated from the KNUTC as a film director. In 2014, she co-founded the film production company Tabor Production. After the Ukrainian revolution, she started volunteer work with children in the city of Mykolaivka in the Donetsk area, which the war partly destroyed. Her experience there led to the documentary School Number 3, co-directed by George Genoux. The film premiered at Berlinale 2017, winning the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus, and a Special Award at HumanDOC in Warsaw. Her debut short fiction Solitude was selected to Odesa IFF and Raindance in 2019 and was nominated for Best Short Film at the Ukrainian Film Academy Awards 2020. Currently working on development of Vacuum – feature fiction film that took part at Torino Film Lab Extended, MidPoint Feature Launch etc. Yelizaveta is a Berlinale Talents alumni and member of the Ukrainian Film Academy and EFA.
Producer profile: Eugene Rachkovsky was born in Odesa, Ukraine. Graduated from the Odesa National Maritime University as a Master of Transport technologies and systems. He was working as a Director of sales for a petroleum trading company, but changed his professional way and moved to Kyiv to work in the film industry. In 2018 he worked as associate producer on the short film Solitude directed by Yelizaveta Smith. In 2019-2021 worked for the service production company Radioaktivefilm, which shoot commercials for brands like Apple, Samsung, Honda, Jo Malone and etc. After working few years in advertisement he focused on film producing. From October 2020 has has worked as Chief Commercial Officer in TABOR Production. Producer of the short fiction film Black Dog, whose release will be in the summer 2022. Participant of the EURODOC22 programs with the project Silent Flood by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk.
Peace for Nina: Мир для Ніни
Directed by: Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych
Produced by: Lyuba Knorozok (PE Lyuba Knorozok, Ukraine), Dea Gjinovci (Astrae Productions, Switzerland)
Country of production: Ukraine, Switzerland
Runtime: 90/52 mins
Expected release: November, 2022
Production stage: Post Production
Budget: €149,700 (60% in place)
Debut feature
Looking for: Finishing funds, festivals, sales/distributors
Synopsis: In a country at war, a Ukrainian mother channels her grief into action as she seeks justice for her son’s murder by a Russian mercenary. Will Nina succeed in breaking the cycle of violence plaguing her family and finally find peace?
Director profile: Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych is a film director and producer from Kyiv, Ukraine. Following her graduation from the Institute of Journalism of Kyiv State University in 2000, she worked in media and television where she started her career as a journalist and scriptwriter. As a producer she has taken part in launching MTV in Ukraine, and also managing various Ukrainian TV projects. She directed and wrote her first short fiction film Boxers in 2010. Today, Zhanna mostly works in the documentary field, focusing on social-issue films. Her works participated at such film festivals as GoEast IFF, BEAST IFF, Lisbon Film Preview, Odessa IFF, Docudays UA, Inconvenient Films Festival and received awards at DocuBaku (Azerbaijan), Molodist IFF, Dream city and Open Night film festival in Ukraine. As well as broadcasted on Ukrainian Public TV and in cinemas. She is the Head of Ukrainian Director’s Guild.
Producer profile: Lyuba Knorozok is a film producer based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Among her latest projects are the documentary Infinity According to Florian by Oleksiy Radynski (World premiere at the Rotterdam IFF 2022) and the fiction film Citizens of the Cosmos by Anton Vidokle (World Premiere at the Berlinale in 2020). She also worked as a production manager on the film Donbass by Sergei Loznitsa, 2018 (which won Un Certain Regard for Best Director at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival) and Frost by Sharunas Bartas, 2017 as line producer. Her films participated in various film festivals, such as DOK Leipzig, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Nowe Horyzonty IFF and many others, and received awards at Docudays UA, Molodist IFF, Kyiv ISFF etc. Lyuba Knorozok is the member of DAE (Documentary Association of Europe) and EWA European Women’s Audiovisual Network, and a participant of Berlinale Talents 2022.
