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“U are the universe” at the 49th Toronto International Film Festival
Pavlo Ostrikov’s science-fiction feature, supported by ESFUF in December, was premiered in the “Discovery” section of the 49th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
The debut feature of Pavlo Ostrikov, U are the universe is set in a distant future and follows Andriy, a Ukrainian space trucker witnessing the Earth’s explosion from afar. When he believes he is the last human being in the Universe, someone gets in touch – Catherine, a French scientist working in a space station. They are completely different and far from each other, but every day Andriy and Catherine want to meet each other more and more.
The film was shot at the end of 2022. This project received ESFUF Finalisation support in December, which enabled the team to complete the VFX and to work on the sound, music, and recording of Catherine’s French dialogue – voiced by a Belgian actress. U are the universe is a Ukrainian-Belgian co-production between the companies ForeFilms (Ukraine) and Stenola Productions (Belgium).
The shooting of the film overcame many consequences of the full scale invasion, such as constant air-raid alerts and power outages.
Pavlo Ostrikov in an interview on Cineuropa explains the set-up for this shoot : “We used some practical effects in the spaceship’s interior”, “Budget constraints were a challenge, and we had a small crew to work with, but we made it happen.”
He also pays tribute to Alexander Suvorov, effect specialist of the film, who was killed in action : “It’s an enormous loss for Ukrainian cinema – he did such brilliant work on this project.”
The world premiere of the film was held on September 6th, 2024, at the Scotiabank Theatre of Totonto.