Film Archive

Falling

East of the West - Competition 2017 / Strimholov / Ukraine 2017

Anton and Katia happen upon one another in night-time Kiev. Both are trying to find their bearings in life, and their encounter changes everything… This psychological drama by debuting Marina Stepanska offers up both a fragile love story and a strong statement on the current young generation as it searches for its place in post-revolutionary Ukraine.

Synopsis

Young Anton has just been released from the rehab centre where he had sought treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction. His grandpa, a man of stern principles who brought him up from a young age, takes him off to the country, far from the lure of the big city. One night Anton meets Katia, who, like him, is trying to find her bearings in life, although at least one thing should be clear in her mind: She is shortly to be leaving for Berlin with her boyfriend Johann, a German photojournalist she met during the Maidan demonstrations. Her encounter with Anton, however, brings a new impulse into her life and profoundly affects both of them… The debuting Ukrainian director uses remarkable sensitivity in her depiction of the fragility of fledgling emotion, to a great extent aided by the finely nuanced performances of the leads. In a broader context Marina Stepanska’s psychological drama is also a strong statement on the current young generation as it tries to find its place in post-revolutionary Ukraine.

Lenka Tyrpáková

About the film

105 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Marina Stepanska / Screenplay Marina Stepanska / Dir. of Photography Sebastian Thaler / Music Mykyta Moiseiev / Editor Borys Peter / Art Director Julia Balan / Producer Olena Yershova, Volodymyr Filippov, Alla Ovsyannikova / Production Tato Film, Insight Media / Cast Andriy Seletskiy, Dasha Plahtiy, Oleg Mosiychuk, Larysa Rusnak, Christian Boris / Contact Tato Film

About the director

Marina Stepanska (b. Ukraine) graduated from the Karpenko-Kary Kiev National University of Film and Television in 2004. She later worked at the experimental theatre “School”, where she studied methods involving nonprofessional actors. She participated in the six-month workshop Archidoc, organised for European documentarists by La Fémis film school in Paris. She has directed several shorts and also wrote various scripts. Man’s Work (Cholovicha robota, 2015) won Best Ukrainian Short at the Odessa IFF and an award for the ensemble cast at the Molodist IFF in Kiev. Falling is her feature film debut.