eng: A man on the background of the sea in a frozen jump.

2024 National competition DOCU/UKRAINE

Frag­ments of Ice

director: Maria Stoianova
Ukraine, Norway202495’
In Ukrainian with Ukrainian and Engish subtitles. Available with audio description (settings in the lower right corner of the video player).
In Ukrainian with Ukrainian and Engish subtitles. Available with audio description (settings in the lower right corner of the video player).
eng: Notification

the film is no longer available

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.”

Director:

Maria Stoianova

Producer:

Alina Gorlova, Maksym Nakonechnyi Co-producers: Karianne Berge, Carsten Aanonsen

Camera:

Mykhailo Stoianov

Sound:

Vasyl Yavtushenko

Production:

Tabor Ltd. Alina Gorlova +380503220454 [email protected] taborproduction.com Co-production: Indie Film

Telling the story of this country, its people and the difficult struggle for freedom and independence, Ukrainian documentary filmmakers find extraordinary forms and carefully construct narratives that become not just a dry record of reality, but impressive pictures that are recognizable and understandable to viewers both in Ukraine and abroad.