Two Ukrainian Films Win at Sundance International Film Festival in US
Films “Klondike” and “House of Splinters” received directing awards in the World Cinema Dramatic and World Cinema Documentary categories, respectively.
At the Sundance International Film Festival in the US, two Ukrainian films, “Klondike” and “House of Splinters,” have won, BBC News Ukraine reports.
“Klondike” won the award for best directing in the World Cinema Dramatic category, and “House of Splinters” won the award for best directing in the World Cinema Documentary category.
Sundance is one of the most prestigious independent film festivals in the world. It is held annually in late January in Park City, Utah, US.
“Klondike,” a film by Ukrainian director Marina Gorbach, co-produced with Turkey, tells the story of a family caught in the epicenter of events after the crash of flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, in the village of Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast.
“Irka and Tolik are expecting their first child, and war violently bursts into their lives along with the wreckage of the downed Boeing. The woman refuses to evacuate even when the village is seized by armed groups,” the filmmakers say about the film.
Director Marina Gorbach stresses that this film is an occasion to draw attention to the lives of people during the war in Ukraine.
Marina Gorbach
director“Klondike” is above all a film that reminds us that the war in Ukraine has been going on since 2014, and regardless of whether this agenda is present in Western media or not, the war does not stop.
The second winning film, “House of Splinters,” is a co-production of Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Ukraine; its director is Simon Lereng Wilmont.
“House of Splinters” tells of how, against the backdrop of war in eastern Ukraine, which hits hard the families living near the front line, a small group of dedicated social workers tirelessly works in a special children's home, creating the safe space so essential for children's lives while state bodies and courts decide the future of the child and the family.
Second director and line producer Asad Safarov noted that the film took 2.5 years to make.
Asad Safarov
director, producerIn recent days, the most influential American trade media have published so many fantastic reviews of the film that our level of happiness is off the charts. Most importantly, almost every review of the film mentions Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. It is very important for Ukraine that the world talks about this and knows about it as much as possible.
This is not the first time Ukrainians have won at this festival. In 2020, Ukrainian director Iryna Tsilyk received the Sundance award for best documentary directing for her film “Earth Blue as an Orange.”
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