Director Kateryna Gornostai’s documentary-like film, originally released in 2021, has assumed a heartbreaking new significance since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
This gentle, authentic-feeling coming-of-age drama from Ukrainian film-maker Kateryna Gornostai premiered at the Berlin festival in 2021. Released in the UK almost a year to the day since the Russian invasion, her film has become unbearably poignant. It follows a class of 16-year-olds over the course of a single winter: nothing major happens; they hang out, drink a fair bit, party a little, grapple with sexuality and mental health. Actually, the loveliest thing about the film is how it keeps them all safe. They are nice kids; we leave them with everything to live for.
At times it feels like we’re watching a documentary. The actors seem so relaxed and intimate – like actual classmates who’ve grown up together over the years, and who know each other inside out.
This gentle, authentic-feeling coming-of-age drama from Ukrainian film-maker Kateryna Gornostai premiered at the Berlin festival in 2021. Released in the UK almost a year to the day since the Russian invasion, her film has become unbearably poignant. It follows a class of 16-year-olds over the course of a single winter: nothing major happens; they hang out, drink a fair bit, party a little, grapple with sexuality and mental health. Actually, the loveliest thing about the film is how it keeps them all safe. They are nice kids; we leave them with everything to live for.
At times it feels like we’re watching a documentary. The actors seem so relaxed and intimate – like actual classmates who’ve grown up together over the years, and who know each other inside out.
- 2/20/2023
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
A specialty market dotted by holdovers as Oscar nods approach and gripped by Sundance fever debuts a compelling handful of new openers from Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s Introduction to Bhutan’s first ever entrant on the Academy Awards International feature shortlist, to a Ukrainian coming of age story and a Queen Latifa-starrring family film Tiger Rising based on the bestselling Kate Dicamillo book.
They come in a frame with two new wide releases: Faith-based romance Redeeming Love presented by Universal on 1,903 screens, and Sean McNamara’s family adventure The King’s Daughter at 2,170 locations, presented by Gravitas. (See below for more on both.)
The Avenue presents The Tiger Rising on 800+ screens, the weekend’s widest specialty release. Directed by Ray Giarratana from a screenplay he adapted based on the Dicamillo novel. With Christian Convery and Dennis Quaid. Lonely 12-year-old Rob Horton (Convery) discovers a caged tiger in the woods near his home,...
They come in a frame with two new wide releases: Faith-based romance Redeeming Love presented by Universal on 1,903 screens, and Sean McNamara’s family adventure The King’s Daughter at 2,170 locations, presented by Gravitas. (See below for more on both.)
The Avenue presents The Tiger Rising on 800+ screens, the weekend’s widest specialty release. Directed by Ray Giarratana from a screenplay he adapted based on the Dicamillo novel. With Christian Convery and Dennis Quaid. Lonely 12-year-old Rob Horton (Convery) discovers a caged tiger in the woods near his home,...
- 1/21/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Kateryna Gornostai opens a window into the world of a group of Ukrainian teenagers in her debut fiction feature - although, more accurately, it is a series of window to multiple worlds, each subtly shifting on its axis towards adulthood and occupied by an individual of this strong ensemble cast. The different realms of Masha (Maria Fedorchenko) and her friends Senia (Arsenii Markov) and Yana (Yana Isaienko) come into contact with each other and those of other teenagers at the high school where they are all coming towards the end of their final year.
Some of the things you would expect from this environment - a house party, a class trip and a school dance - are present and correct but Gornostai avoids obvious narrative arcs in favour of just letting us hang out and observe the everyday challenges and small dramas that pepper the lives of these 16-year-olds. The end result,...
Some of the things you would expect from this environment - a house party, a class trip and a school dance - are present and correct but Gornostai avoids obvious narrative arcs in favour of just letting us hang out and observe the everyday challenges and small dramas that pepper the lives of these 16-year-olds. The end result,...
- 8/23/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Berlin International Film Festival has set its full slate for the upcoming 2021 edition. Berlinale usually follows Sundance with a February festival, but the pandemic has forced organizers to develop a new festival format for 2021. The 71st Berlin International Film Festival is set to take place with the “Industry Event” from March 1 to 5, which will include the European Film Market (EFM), the Berlinale Co-Production Market, the Berlinale Talents, and the World Cinema Fund in online forms. From June 9 to 20, 2021 the Berlinale will launch a “Summer Special” with numerous film presentations in Berlin, both at indoor and outdoor cinemas.
Included in the March event is the traditional film festival slate, which includes the main Berlinale Competition lineup as well as sidebar sections such as Berlinale Special & Berlinale Series, Encounters, Berlinale Shorts, Panorama, Forum & Forum Expanded, Generation, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, and Retrospective. With the exception of the Retrospective, the films will be shown at the March event.
Included in the March event is the traditional film festival slate, which includes the main Berlinale Competition lineup as well as sidebar sections such as Berlinale Special & Berlinale Series, Encounters, Berlinale Shorts, Panorama, Forum & Forum Expanded, Generation, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, and Retrospective. With the exception of the Retrospective, the films will be shown at the March event.
- 2/11/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
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