Film Archive

Crystal Swan

East of the West - Competition 2018 / Khrustal / Belarus, Germany, USA, Russia 2018

Young Evelina has a law degree, but her dream is to travel to the USA and earn a living as a professional DJ. It’s 1996, however, and the girl is living in post-Soviet Minsk... This energetic debut from Belarusian director Darya Zhuk, pulsating to the rhythm of 90s house, is the opening film of this year’s East of the West competition.

Synopsis

Young Evelina has a law degree, but her dream is to travel to the USA and earn a living as a professional DJ. It’s 1996, however, and the girl is living in post-Soviet Minsk. The country is suffering an economic crisis with high unemployment, and its citizens receive payment in kind. In order to obtain a visa and fulfil her dream, Evelina needs to provide evidence at the embassy that she has a permanent job. But then fortuitous events lead her to a backwater village where her destiny interlocks for a time with a local family planning a wedding... This energetic debut from Belarusian director Darya Zhuk, pulsating to the rhythm of 90s house, is the opening film of this year’s East of the West competition.

Lenka Tyrpáková

About the film

95 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Darya Zhuk / Screenplay Helga Landauer / Dir. of Photography Carolina Costa / Editor Sergey Dmitrenko, Michal Leszczylowski / Art Director Andrey Tolstik / Producer Birgit Gernböck, Olga Goister, Debbie Vandermeulen, Valery Dmitrotchenko / Production Turnstyle TV LLC / Coproduction Demarsh Films Minsk, Unfound Content, Fusion Features, Vice Media / Cast Alina Nasibullina, Ivan Mulin, Yury Borisov, Svetlana Anikey, Ilya Kapanets / Sales Loco Films

About the director

Darya Zhuk. Filmography: Half-Life (2011, short), The Air Inside Her (2011, short), Wax (2013, short), Eat the Tourists (2014, short), What Doesn’t Kill You (2015, short), The Real American (2015, short), Crystal Swan (Khrustal, 2018)