World Premiere: 2022 Sundance Film Festival
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
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.