“Silent Flood” receives IDFA award for Best Cinematography

Silent Flood, a documentary by Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, received the award for Best Cinematography at IDFA, where it premiered as part of the international competition.

The documentary, produced by Karina Kostyna and Eugene Rachkovsky from Ukrainian company Tabor in co-production with Elemag Pictures, had received ESFUF finalisation support in May 2024.

The film follows members of a pacifist, traditional religious community, living in isolation along the Dniester River in western Ukraine. Their peaceful existence has often been disrupted by the fluctuating levels of the river, but since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, their way of life has come under pressure from a far greater threat. Silent Flood offers a unique perspective on a country and its people at war, shifting lens from the religious community to Ukrainian soldiers and showing the convergence of both worlds.

The Best cinematography prize was awarded on Thursday, November 20 to Ivan Morarash, Oleksandr Korotun, Viacheslav Tsvietkov, and Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk.

Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, whose debut film Pamfir premiered at Cannes 2022’s Directors’ Fortnight, has also received development support from ESFUF for his fiction film Retention.