The love of Olya and Oleh, a young queer Ukrainian couple, is put to the test when one partner’s gender transition collides with Russia’s full-scale invasion. As war narrows and challenges the boundaries of masculinity and femininity, they struggle to preserve their bond and sense of self. What does it mean to be a man in a country that is fighting for its identity and survival?
Isabelle Stever
German director and screenwriter, born in Munich in 1963. She studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin (DFFB), and her graduation film (‘Portrait of a Married Couple’) was awarded the director's newcomer prize First Steps as best feature film in 2002. With ‘Gisela’ (2005), she competed at the Locarno Film Festival, and in 2009 she participated in the collective film ‘Germany 09 - 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation’, selected for the Berlinale. In 2010, she competed at the Turin Film Festival with ‘Blessed Events’, and in 2015, with ‘The Weather Inside’, she was selected for festivals in Zurich and Busan, in addition to winning two awards at the 2morrow Moscow Film Festival. Her film ‘Grand Jeté’ premiered in Panorama at the Berlin Film Festival, and ‘I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming’ had its world premiere in Locarno, where it won the Youth Jury Prize ‘L'ambiente è qualità di vita’.
DIRECTOR
Isabelle Stever
SCREENPLAY
Anna Melikova
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Volodymyr Usyk
EDITOR
Paul Groebel, Laura Lauzemis
SOUND
Nataliia Avramenko, Mykhailo Zakutskyi, Andreas Hildebrandt
PRODUCTION
Uwe Schott, Tom Tykwer, Olha Bregman, Natalia Libet
PRODUCTION COMPANY
X-Filme Creative Pool, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
CAST
Tania Myronyshena, Markus Bright, Iryna Mak, Viktor Zhdanov, Maiia Sobolevska, Maria Myronyshena, Oleksandr Rudynskyi
RUNNING TIME
100 min.
TYPE
Feature film
FORMAT
Color
YEAR OF PRODUCTION
2026
VERSION
O.V. in Ukrainian with Spanish and English subtitles
