PISNI ZEMLI, SHCHO POVILNO HORYT’ – SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTHH
Olha Zhurba | Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, France 2024 | 95 min. | Ukrainian, Russian with engl. subtitles
SATURDAY, 10.05. | 9 pm
Votiv Kino, Gr. Saal | TICKETS
Austrian premiere
A crowd of people queue to catch a train out of Kiev. Bombs roar in the distance. A convoy of coffins moves through the landscape, while residents kneel at the side of the road in silent respect. Ukrainian filmmaker Olha Zhurba spent two years documenting the everyday struggle that her country suffers during the barbaric war.
PISNI ZEMLI, SHCHO POVILNO HORYT’ is an eerie panorama of life in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression. The forcefulness of the film’s impressions and images condense into an elegy. Yet, it also reveals the mental change that occurs when war becomes part of everyday life. A testimony to the human ability to adapt to tragedy and imagine a better future.
Director: Olha Zhurba
Camera: Volodymyr Usyk, Vyacheslav Tsvetkov , Misha Lubarsky
Editing: Editor Michael Aaglund
Sound: Vasyl Yavtushenko
Production: Darya Bassel | Moon Man Films
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
81st Venice Film Festival, Riga IFF – Int. Competition
Astra Film Festival, Cin East Luxembourg, Lugano HRFF – Int. Competition
IDFA – Best of fests
Verzio FF
Movies on War
Terrtio Millennio
Rome IDFF
Black Movie Geneva
FIPA DOC
Big Sky IDFF
WINNER | RIGA IFF FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
WINNER: DOC FUTURE AWARD at Verzio IDFF Hungary
WINNER: BEST FILM at Tertio Millennio Film Fest
Special Jury Award at Rome Documentary FF
Best Feature film at Big Sky Documentary FF
BIOGRAPHY
Olha Zhurba is a Ukrainian film director, editor and screenwriter. Her short fiction film DAD’S SNEAKERS (2021) premiered at the Locarno FF and later won awards at many international festivals. DAD’S SNEAKERS was a candidate for a nomination at the European Film Awards 2022. OUTSIDE (2022) is her debut documentary, which premiered at CPH:DOX and HOT DOCS and won the Willy Brandt award at the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin and later the Japan Prize Award of Honor. She was also the editor of the festival hits and award-winning documentary films THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP (2021) and HOME GAMES (2018).
