Roman Bondarchuk Talks Blurring Fact and Fiction in ‘The Editorial Office,’ a Post-Truth Dramedy Set on the Eve of the Ukraine War
variety.comChristopher Vourlias Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Bondarchuk is winding down post-production on his latest feature film, “The Editorial Office,” a dramedy set on the eve of the Russian invasion.
It’s among the works in progress being presented this week at CineLink Industry Days, the industry arm of the Sarajevo Film Festival. “The Editorial Office” follows Yura, a junior researcher at a provincial nature museum who witnesses an act of arson committed in the forest.
When he brings evidence of the crime to the editor of a local newspaper, he unexpectedly gets hired as a journalist, a career change that suddenly pulls him into a treacherous world where the line between fact and fiction is blurred. “It’s about a young man who’s trying to discover his own truth, sometimes at a very high price,” said Bondarchuk.
The director, previously known for documentaries such as 2015 IDFA premiere “Ukrainian Sheriffs,” made the transition to fiction with his Karlovy Vary player “Volcano” (2019), an absurdist comedy described by Variety’s Alissa Simon as “a mesmerizing fiction debut” that placed him among “contemporary Ukraine’s most intriguing filmmaker[s].” “The Editorial Office” draws again on Bondarchuk’s signature dark humor and eye for the absurd to lure viewers into a surreal post-truth world, unspooling both on the eve and in the imagined aftermath of the Ukraine war.
Read more on variety.com
