Nice Ladies
A team of ageing Ukrainian cheerleaders hold on to their friendship as each navigates the trauma of war in her own way.
Personal, political and social developments unfold in Fragments of Ice, which was edited together from fifteen VHS tapes covering the period 1986 to 1994: video diaries shot by the director’s father, a champion figure-skater, on his foreign tours with the Ukrainian
Ensemble Ballet on Ice, as well as in his own home. As we follow director Maria Stoianova growing up, we witness the parallel collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s journey towards regaining its independence, then its transition to a market economy. Expectations reflected in the glamourous footage of the West, shot by Stoianova’s father, contrast starkly with the home video footage of peeling walls, collapsed ceilings and cockroaches back at the family flat.
Fragments of Ice captures both the broad sweep of history and the impact of this on the lives of real people, ending with a new upheaval — the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“The end of history never happened,” Stoianova muses. “It froze and caught up with us years later.”
Maria Stoianova
Alina Gorlova, Maksym Nakonechnyi Co-producers: Karianne Berge, Carsten Aanonsen
Mykhailo Stoianov
Vasyl Yavtushenko
Tabor Ltd. Alina Gorlova +380503220454 [email protected] taborproduction.com Co-production: Indie Film
A team of ageing Ukrainian cheerleaders hold on to their friendship as each navigates the trauma of war in her own way.
Everything Needs to Live portrays the unusual daily life of Anna Kurkurina, a charismatic athlete, ‘the strongest woman in the world’, an animal activist and an out lesbian.
Four generations of Ukrainian women from one family explore how their ethnic identity has been destroyed by the full-scale Russian invasion. Together and one by one at the same time, they embark on an emotional journey shaped by their newfound memories and family history.
In Elevation, director Maksym Rudenko captures the process of growing up and becoming a man through the example of young students of a sports school in the Carpathians. Their demanding coach strives to toughen his students and teach them how to achieve victories and professional heights.