Documentary Films - Competition 2016 / Rodnye / Germany, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine 2016
“I became a Russian citizen simply because I happened to live in Moscow when the Soviet Union broke apart,” says the celebrated Ukrainian documentarist. A few decades later his family in Ukraine face the dramatic consequences of further turbulent change, and their fresh experience of the revolution shows us that the media presentation of the country’s East-West dichotomy is deeply flawed.
“I was born in 1963 in the city of Lviv, Ukraine, where I grew up. I moved to Moscow to study; it was still the Soviet Union in those days. My career as a director was just getting started when the USSR broke up. I became a Russian citizen simply because I happened to be living in Moscow at the time,” says celebrated Ukrainian documentarist Vitaly Mansky. A few decades later his family in Ukraine face the dramatic consequences of further turbulent change, finding themselves on opposite sides of the Ukrainian barricades. Mansky thus sets off in the wake of the Maidan revolution along a trail through the still scorched earth of his native country. His extended family becomes the vehicle for a precise and profound analysis of a region of disparate views; they also demonstrate that the media presentation of the country’s East-West dichotomy is deeply flawed, ignorant of the real standpoint of the Ukrainians, whether they live near the Polish border, in the seaport of Odessa, or in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.
Martin Horyna
112 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Vitaly Mansky
/ Dir. of Photography Alexandra Ivanova
/ Music Harmo Kallaste, Mikael Tariverdiev
/ Editor Peteris Kimelis, Gunta Ikere
/ Producer Simone Baumann, Guntis Trekteris, Natalya Manskaya, Marianna Kaat
/ Production Saxonia Entertainment, Ego Media, Vertov. Real Cinema, Baltic Film Production
/ Coproduction 435 Films
/ Sales Deckert Distribution
Vitaly Mansky (b. 1963, Lviv, USSR) studied cinematography at Moscow’s VGIK (1990). He began making films in the late 1980s and, since then, he has won over fifty awards during his career, including a Silver Dove at the Leipzig festival (Cuts of Another War) and Best Feature-Length Documentary Film at Karlovy Vary (Pipeline). He is the publisher of the oldest internet documentary film magazine and the author of the manifesto Reality Cinema. He has been president of the Artdokfest film festival in Moscow since 2006. Selected filmography: Jewish Happiness (1991), Private Chronicles. Monologue (1998), Vladimir Putin. The Leap Year (2001), Anatomy of t.A.T.u. (2003), Virginity (2008), Sunrise/Sunset. Dalai Lama 14 (2008), Nikolina Gora. Epilogue (2009), Motherland or Death (2011), Pipeline (2013), Under the Sun (2015)
Deckert Distribution
Gottschedstr. 18, 04109, Leipzig
Germany
Phone: +49 341 215 6638
E-mail: [email protected]
Vitaly Mansky
Festival Organizer, Film Director, Producer
Anna Palenchuk
Producer
Guntis Trekteris
Producer
Marianna Kaat
Producer
Viktoriia Shpiakina
Protagonist
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
