On September 4, as part of the official programme of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, the documentary Songs of Slow Burning Earth, directed by Olha Zhurba, celebrated its world premiere in the Out of Competition strand. The film’s crew used the red carpet to spotlight the plight of Ukrainian civilians and service members who remain prisoners of war in Russia.
On the red carpet, team members wore clothing embroidered with the distances from the Lido to various locations where Russians are holding Ukrainian prisoners. Each piece of clothing, made in collaboration with Ukrainian multidisciplinary artist and designer Alisa Liubomska, featured unique embroidery carrying eight names of different detention sites and their respective distances from the Lido. “Each of these names symbolises the lives of thousands of Ukrainian men and women,” the film team writes.
Songs of Slow Burning Earth, Zhurba’s sophomore feature-length documentary, is an audiovisual diary documenting Ukraine’s immersion into the abyss of total war, filmed over the first two years of the full-scale Russian invasion. The film is described as “a mosaic of landscapes, people, occasional conversations, expressive sounds and silences, gradually revealing the tragic normalisation of war in society. Against the backdrop of the collective disaster, a new generation of Ukrainians aspires to imagine the future.”
It is produced by Darya Bassel for Ukrainian production company Moon Man in co-production with Anne Köhncke (Denmark), co-founder of the six-time Oscar®-nominated production company Final Cut for Real (The Act of Killing, Flee) and Kerstin Übelacker for We Have a Plan (Sweden), ARTE France, and Film i Skåne. Filmotor is handling sales.
During the world premiere, the film team decided to draw the attention of international media and festival guests to the imprisonment of Ukrainian military personnel and civilians.
Director Olha Zhurba commented: “We wanted to remind people of the horrific conditions in which detainees are held, the illegitimate trials and fabricated charges, the torture, and the deaths. About everything that Russia, as a terrorist state, is doing with impunity to individuals who should never have been there in the first place. It is a huge tragedy very few people abroad know about. Those responsible for these actions must be held accountable.”
She added: “My initial idea was to unite two polar worlds: the world of life and art with the world of torture and death. Why does humankind allow these to co-exist on such a scale?”
Ukrainian multidisciplinary artist and designer Alisa Liubomska helped to bring this idea to life. She designed the format and appearance of the embroidery: “Embroidery is an art form, making it a perfect fit within the context of the Biennale. I chose hand embroidery, which gave each letter its uniqueness, making the text feel as if it were handwritten — much like the letters that are often the only, even if unreliable, means of staying in touch with prisoners of war. Moreover, embroidery is a part of our cultural code, offering an additional way to express who we are and to show that this is integral to our culture.”
“The artist infused the embroidery with multiple layers of meaning, hoping that each viewer would perceive something unique: for some, it might resemble a handwritten letter, while for others, the threads might evoke the image of blood,” say the film’s team.
During the preparation, the film team consulted with the Center for Civil Liberties and The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Ukrainian brands Tamar Keburia, Kachorovska, Andreas Moskin, Why Me, and Knitel provided clothing for the campaign.
