News
“Songs of slow burning earth” at the 81st Venice Film Festival
The documentary film by Olha Zhurba, supported by ESFUF in December, was premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival, Out of Competition on September 4th, 2024.
Songs of slow burning earth is a diary of Ukraine’s immersion into the abyss of total war, filmed at different distances of the front line. The film depicts life in Ukraine during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion. It captures the changes in society: the initial ragged chords of panic in the first weeks of the large-scale war slowly morph into the numb stillness of acceptance of death and destruction, which eventually become a tragic norm for Ukrainians.
The production companies Moon Man (Ukraine) and Final Cut For Real (Denmark) applied for ESFUF finalisation support in the fall of 2023. In December, the project was supported under its working title “Displaced”.
The film is Olha Zhurba’s second feature, after her 2022 documentary “Outside”, which premiered at CPH:DOX and HOT DOCS, and was co-produced between Ukraine, Denmark, France and Sweden.
Among the film delegation in Venise were 3 protagonists of the film, engaged on the front line: Hanna Vasyk (Junior Sergent in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who previously worked as Arts Manager), Mykhailo Puryshev (one of the first volunteers who broke through roadblocks and deliver humanitarian aid to Mariupol to evacuate people in his red van in March-April 2022) and Mykola Hradnov-Savytskyi (a war veteran of the National Guard of Ukraine, actor and director).
On the red warpet, the film crew wore clothing embroidered with the distances from Lido Island, where the Venice Film Festival takes place, to 8 of the over 170 known prisons where Russia detains Ukrainian military and civilians. The embroideries were designed by the Ukrainian artist Alisa Liubomskaya.
In an interview, following the screening Olha Zhurba stated: “I started to film because when you live through the apocalypse you can’t think about the future, but as a documentary director you film as an impulse and as a duty, you try to capture every moment for future archives. We decided to keep the camera at a distance and to leave behind the frame the horrors of the war because it is more powerful this way: it unlocks your imagination as a viewer.”
Darya Bassel, from the Ukrainian production company Moon Man stated: “I am confident that Song of slow burning earth will speak to audiences worldwide on a deep emotional level, conveying our pain and making people reflect on the consequences of this war for the entire world.”