Greece, Austria, Romania
116
69th edition. October 18-26, 2024
Menu
Set amidst stunning Ukrainian winter landscapes, vanishing villages, and emerging feelings of alienation between people in post-Soviet society, ‘Stepne’ is the story of Anatoliy, a man who comes back home from the big city to take care of his dying mother. A meeting with his brother and a woman he loves make him reflect on the life he’s had and the choices he made along the way.
She was born in 1982 in Kyiv, Ukraine. After graduating in Directing from the I.K. Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Film and Television in Kiev in 2007, she worked with Sergei Loznitsa. In 2008, her short student films (’Family Portrait’, 2006; ‘The Rain’, 2007; ‘The Oath’, 2008) were entered for international film festivals both in Eastern and Western Europe and in 2011 her film ‘Cross-Country Run’ won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2010 she was a participant at the Berlinale Talent Campus and used the Residence Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2013 to write the script for the film ‘Stepne’, her debut feature, that was premiered in 2023 in competition at the Locarno Film Festival, where she won the Fipresci and Best Director awards. In 2015 she directed the documentary ‘Penguin’ and in 2016 she studied for a Master at the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg.
