The film program dedicated to Ukraine includes 5 films. Director Irina Cilika’s film “Earth Blue as an Orange” (2020) depicts the efforts of a single mother living near the Donbass war line and her four children to preserve humanity by making a film about their lives during the war. The film received a special award at last year’s Artdocfest / Riga festival and has won awards at many international festivals.
The film “Sheriffs of Ukraine” (2016), directed by Roman Bondarchuk and co-produced by the Latvian film studio VFS Films, is an insight into the recent history of Ukraine through the life of a small southern village.
The program also includes the film “Relatives” (2016) by Ukrainian-born director Vitaly Manski. His family still lives in Ukraine and Russia. As a result of the conflict in Ukraine, the director’s family members had to make choices that made some of them irreconcilable enemies.
Director Alice Kovalenko’s film Alice in War (2015) is a very personal story about the director’s departure to Eastern Ukraine at the beginning of the war and his capture in the hotspots of the front.
In turn, the Danish director Simon Lereng Wilmont’s film “Remote Dog Rays” (2017) touches on the theme of war and children and tells about the life of a ten-year-old Oleg in eastern Ukraine, in a war zone.
“Artdocfest / Riga” both competition programs – “Baltic Focus” and “Artdocfest” also include the Ukrainian-Latvian co-production film “This Rain Will Never End” (“Between Two Wars”), in which a young Ukrainian director Alina Gorlov takes the audience in a strong and visually exciting on a journey through an endless cycle of war and peace.
“We were waiting for Alina in Riga, at the Latvian premiere of the film. Instead, she is currently in Kiev, experiencing the horrors of the Russian invasion and spending nights in a bomb shelter. The circle of active documentary filmmakers is relatively small, we are all well known and colleagues in Ukraine, are mind – boggling and affect us very personally
we decided to include in the festival strong films reflecting the events in Ukraine and donate the proceeds from the sale of their tickets to our colleagues in Ukraine, “
Festival producer Ieva Ūbele told about the decision made by the festival team.
The full festival program and more detailed information can be found Homepage.
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