Valentyn Vasyanovych: Last News

Seven Ukrainian filmmakers, who are remaining in the country as Russia continues its invasion, have spoken out about their experiences on the front line of the war in their country. Directors Valentyn Vasyanovych, Roman Bondarchuk, Nariman Aliev, Maryna Er Gorbach , Antonio Lukich, Alina Gorlova and producer Darya Bassel have all called upon the international film and television community to issue cultural sanctions against Russia.

Naman Ramachandran As the invasion of Ukraine continues, seven leading Ukrainian filmmakers allege complicity by the Russian artistic community. They are now calling for cultural sanctions against Russia.Valentyn Vasyanovych, director (“Black Level,” “Atlantis,” “Reflection”)Insidious shelling of residential areas with civilians, as well as blackmail of nuclear weapons – is a manifestation of the powerless rage of the fascist regime of Russia and the lack of chances to defeat the Ukrainian army and people in a direct military confrontation.The whole bloody history of Russia, as imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet, is based on the bloodthirsty attitude towards its neighbors and its people, who have never been united ethnically or culturally.

As the people of Ukraine wake up to the reality of war, many of the country’s top filmmakers and industry professionals have issued statements pleading for international intervention.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefA group of prominent Ukrainian filmmakers has called for the world to wake up to the threat posed to democracy following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Central European country on Thursday.An open letter was circulated Friday by filmmakers including: Oleh Sentsov, director of “Rhino”; Valentyn Vasyanovych, director of “Reflection” and “Atlantis”; Maryna Er Gorbach, director of “Klondike”; Anna Machukh, executive director of the Ukrainian Film Academy and OIFF; Natalia Vorozhbyt, director of ‘Bad Roads”; Iryna Tsilyk, director of “The Earth is Blue as an Orange”; and Nariman Aliev, director of “Homeward.”“Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. Now, more than ever, we need the help of the international community and anyone who understands that tomorrow war may be at your door.

Jessica Kiang In a series of beautiful and devastated frames within frames, Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s “Reflection” sets up a chain of shiveringly precise parallels — or rather, moral mirror-images — between the life and psyche of a civilian and the actions and reactions of that same man in war. A surgeon’s table is swapped for a cement torture plinth.

Nick Holdsworth Audiences on the Lido may be forgiven for thinking they’ve seen the Ukrainian entry in the competition, “Reflection,” before in Venice. Director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s somber study of the toll in the war against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine is shot in his trademark series of static, single-frame shots, like “Atlantis” – which won the Venice Horizons Award in 2019 – and his “Black Level” (2017).Two years ago, one critic counted 28 static shots in “Atlantis”; according to Variety‘s count, “Reflection” has 29.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorNew Europe Film Sales has picked up “Reflection,” the next film from Ukrainian director Valentyn Vasyanovych, who won best film in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival for “Atlantis” in 2019.“Reflection” was a hot title in the works in progress section of Les Arcs last year, and is considered as a frontrunner for the fall and winter festivals.The film centers on Ukrainian surgeon Serhiy, who is captured by the Russian military forces in the conflict zone in Eastern Ukraine, and while in captivity, he is exposed to horrifying scenes of humiliation, violence and indifference toward human life.

Post-apocalyptic films used to have a sort of romance to them. The idea of a desolate wasteland was so otherworldly and foreign that it seemed like the perfect fodder for fun adventures.