With a one-two masterwork punch in Venice Film Festival selections Atlantis (2019) and Reflection (2022), it is in the face of the war crime atrocities inflicted upon the Ukrainian people that filmmaker Valentyn Vasyanovych finds himself on edge, and yet still in creative mode. Screen Daily had the chance to speak to the Vasyanovych and his producer Vladimir Yatsenko who in face of the escalation of the war and uncertain future are using cinema to subvert the dark overcast. We learned that Vasyanovych started filming a documentary in Kyiv but that project was abandoned as he probably feels more at ease in fiction form – but that’s not to say his next project isn’t submerged in reality.
“this will be a more personal, intimate story – about a director who finds himself “in the middle of the craziness” of the current conflict. At treatment stage, it will deal with many of the issues that Vasyanovych and his compatriots have faced in recent months: carrying on with everyday life during wartime, caring for elderly parents and coping without wives and children who have sought refuge abroad.”
Our Nicholas Bell on Reflection: “Sure to test the resiliency of any audience, both for its brutality and austerity, Vasyanovych has an ability goad us into disturbing but necessary contemplation past the final credits of a grueling, beautifully shot film.” Read full review here.
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
