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Klondike

World Premiere: 2022 Sundance Film Festival

Klondike

Klondike

Press

"Uncompromising, formally remarkable Sundance prizewinner."
Variety, Guy Lodge

"Klondike is both despairing – sometimes in a blackly comic vein – and empathetic."
ScreenDaily, Lee Marshall

"Maryna Er Gorbach’s poetic and imaginative film evokes the surreal atmosphere of a peculiar conflict."
Cineuropa, Elena Lazic

"Director Maryna Er Gorbach offers an unblinking gaze into the abyss, a pitiless panorama of struggle."
The Film Stage, David Katz

"Using long takes and panning shots that emphasise the proximity of conflict to the everyday, the writer/director and her cinematographer Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi capture both the brutalities and the absurdities that can occur when normal life bangs up against the otherness of conflict."
Eye For Film, Amber Wilkinson

"Klondike holds nothing back in presenting a stark portrait of life in a war-torn village."
Tilt, Christopher Cross

"Maryna Er Gorbach’s film focuses on the human cost. Klondike is a brutal and unforgettable drama."
Backseat Mafia, Rob Aldam

"Director Maryna Er Gorbach creates that unbearable tension with striking and reverent directorial choices."
Geek Vibes Nation, Brandon Lewis

"Klondike is thusly a modern tragedy told beautifully blunt. Regardless of where it falls politically (if anywhere at all) it still elicits a powerful response, which on its own is sometimes enough."
FilmBook, Jacob Mouradian

"Die Regisseurin, die für „Klondike“ den Regie-Preis in Sundance gewann, zeigt den Irrsinn des von Männern ausgetragenen Konflikts aus weiblicher Perspektive."
Tagesspiegel, Simon Rayss

"Maryna Er Gorbach gelingt es, die Zerrissenheit eines Landes aus größter Nähe zu zeigen und zu sezieren."
Unauf, Nils Katzur

"Ein sogar­tiges, verzwei­feltes, in matten Farben und kargem Licht gehal­tenes Drama, das der Breaking-News-Ober­fläche mit klas­si­schen Western-Elementen endlich das notwen­dige Fundament unter­wuchtet."
Arteschock, Axel Timo Purr

"Based on real events, the dismal narrative unfolds at a glacial pace yet still hooks with the veracity of its filmmaking, setting, and the lived-in performances of its two leads. The drama will leave you feeling miserable, but not all art is meant to soothe. Sometimes, it’s important to glare into the darkness of the abyss."
Filmthreat, Alex Saveliev

"Gorbach expertly balances levity in the midst of all this trauma, with Cherkashyna’s comic timing the glue."
Roger-Ebert.com, Roger Ebert

"Maryna Er Gorbach kennt ihr Heimatland und dessen Frauen und natürlich das Patriarchat, das sich im Krieg erfolgreich durchsetzen kann. Klondike erzählt davon in einer Wucht, wie sie selten zu finden und schwer zu ertragen ist."
Filmlöwin, Sophie Brakemeier

Klondike

by MARYNA ER GORBACH (UA/TR 2022, 100‘)

Anti-War, Drama

Synopsis 

July 2014. Expectant parents Irka and Tolik live in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, disputed territory in the early days of the Donbas war. The nervous anticipation of their first child’s birth is violently disrupted as the neighbouring crash of flight MH17 elevates the forbidding tension enveloping their village. The looming wreckage of the downed airliner and an incoming parade of mourners emphasize the surreal trauma of the moment.

While Tolik’s separatist friends expect him to join their efforts, Irka’s brother is enraged by suspicions that the couple has betrayed Ukraine. Irka refuses to be evacuated even as the village is captured by armed forces, and she tries to make peace between her husband and brother by asking them to repair their bombed house.

Credits

Written and directed by: Maryna Er Gorbach
D.O.P: Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi
Producers: Maryna Er Gorbach, Mehmet Bahadir Er, Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi
Supervising Art Director: Marketa Korinkova-Taplin
Sound Designer: Srdjan Kurpjel
Composer: Zviad Mgebry
Cast: Oxana Cherkashyna, Sergiy Shadrin, Oleg Scherbina, Oleg Shevchuk, Arthur Aramyan, Evgenij Efremov et al.


Sundance Film Festival - Best Director
Berlinale Panorama
Berlinale - Panorama Ecumenical Jury Award
Berlinale Panorama
Fribourg International Film Festival - Critics Award
Fribourg International Film Festival - Grand Prix
Fribourg International Film Festival - Special mention
Istanbul International Film Festival - Best film in national competition
Istanbul International Film Festival - best cinematography national competition
Seattle International Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize
https://www.sff.org.au/
Karlovy Vary IFF
Sarajevo IFF
Cleveland International Film Festival
Stockfish Film Festival
Wisconsin International Film Festival
Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival
International Film Festival of Uruguay - International Competition
SEEfest
Milwaukee International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival
GoEast Film Festival - International Competition
Marthas Vinyard Film Festival
Elbe Dock Film Festival
Neiße Film Festival - Special Prize
Turkish Film Festival Frankfurt
B.Z. Kulturpreis for Maryna Gorbach
Guanajuto IFF - International Competition
Durban International Film Festival
New Horizons IFF
Provincetown Film Festival
Der Neue Heimat Film Festival
Kitzbühel IFF
Arlington IFF
Denver FF
Heartland Narrative
Heartland Winner
Foyle FF
Haugesund FF
Warsaw FF
Norrköping FF
Asian World Film Festival
Stockholm IFF
CineCity Laurel
FF Diritti Umani Lago
IFF Kerala
European FF South Africa