ukraine and russia in a state of war

IN LIMBO - W ZAWIESZENI
How can we under­stand what this war does to people? Alina Mak­si­menko and Olha Zhurba, two Ukrain­ian film­mak­ers, have found very dif­fer­ent approach­es to making life during the war com­pre­hen­si­ble on film.  It is Feb­ru­ary 2022, and the fight­ing around Kiev forces film­mak­er Alina Mak­si­menko to move to her par­ents’ vil­lage in the north-east of Ukraine. This is where she makes her film IN LIMBO. As the impacts get audi­bly closer, many neigh­bors flee. Alina and her par­ents decide to stay and have to learn to deal with this isolation.  In her film SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH, Olha Zhurba devel­ops a kind of diary of every­day life during the war. Her camera is direct, she is among and with the people. In her images, she achieves an inten­si­ty and close­ness that is hard to resist. If there is such a thing as a soul, here it lies open.  The third film in this series gives a rare insight into the future of those who can no longer imag­ine a life on the Russ­ian side. In their film DOM, Svet­lana Rodina and … read more

IN LIMBO - W ZAWIESZENI

Alina Maksimenko
Poland 2024 | 71 Min. | DCP, EN subs

Wed, 28-May-25 07:30 PM
Q&A via zoom with:
Alina Maksimenko
The human meat grinder is at work, what use are prayers? - father Tolya asks his wife and daugh­ter. The three of them remain in their house in a large­ly … read more

Opening Film - DOM

Laurent Stoop, Svetlana Rodina
Switzerland 2024 | 101 Min. | DCP, EN subs

Tue, 27-May-25 07:00 PM
Filmgespräch mit:
Corinna Dästner, Laurent Stoop, Svetlana Rodina
DOM - means house in Russ­ian. How­ev­er, it will not be a home for those who have found shel­ter here in Tbil­isi. They are young Russ­ian oppo­si­tion activists, jour­nal­ists and … read more

SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH 

Olha Zhurba
Denmark, France, Sweden, Ukraine 2024 | 95 Min. | DCP, EN subs

Thu, 29-May-25 04:30 PM
Q&A via zoom with:
Olha Zhurba

In Songs of Slow Burn­ing Earth, film­mak­er Olha Zhurba doc­u­ments Ukraine’s slow descent into the abyss of war over two years. But what does war truly mean and what images can cap­ture its impact on people? Crowds push­ing onto over­crowd­ed trains, tank tracks lining the streets, destroyed homes? 

In this film, war creeps in through your ear. You cannot pro­tect your­self from it, even in your sleep. A caller asks the night-time hot­line - she thinks she has heard rocket fire. What should she do? A pro­jec­tile rips through the air above a bread fac­to­ry. The work­ers briefly glance up at the ceil­ing, then con­tin­ue work­ing. Olha Zurba col­lects these moments almost like a diary. 

Death is present. Graves are being dug, yet the camera respect­ful­ly turns away from those killed. Again and again, gun­fire sounds, sirens wail, and the explo­sions come closer. Then, sud­den­ly, the film falls almost silent. In the longest shot, the camera peers through the wind­screen of a pickup truck lead­ing a convoy of corpses. Along the road­side, people kneel in silent respect for the dead. 

With a clear focus on the side of human­i­ty, the direc­tor cap­tures what this war does to people, but also what they do to resist it. 

Olha Zhurba is a Ukrain­ian film direc­tor, editor and screen­writer. Songs of Slow Burn­ing Earth is her second fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary. Films: DAD’s SNEAKERS (2021), OUTSIDE (2022), SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH  (2024)

Awards: RIGA IFF FEATURE FILM COMPETITION; DOC FUTURE AWARD at Verzio IDFF Hun­gary; BEST FILM at Tertio Mil­len­nio Film Fest; Spe­cial Jury Award at Rome Doc­u­men­tary FF; Best Fea­ture film at Big Sky Doc­u­men­tary FF