Gloagburn sunflower trail a reminder of home for grateful Ukrainian family who found sanctuary in Perthshire

A few minutes before the North American premiere of “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” director Evgeny Afineesvky summed up his state of mind in a single word: “exhausted.”That makes sense, because “Freedom on Fire” screened at the Toronto International Film Festival about six months after Afineevsky and his team began working on it, barely more than a month after its final footage was filmed and only a few weeks after Helen Mirren recorded narration for a scene that comes early in the documentary.For Afineevsky, who landed Oscar and Emmy nominations for 2015’s “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” this sequel of sorts was made in a six-month rush, including just three months of editing after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February of this year. “The urgency of the movie,” the Russian-born director told the audience before the Tuesday morning TIFF screening, “is to not neglect the situation right now.”Certainly, urgency is a hallmark of “Freedom on Fire,” a harrowing document shot by dozens of people inside Ukrainian cities as the Russian army conducted a bombing campaign and an invasion that seemingly targeted civilians, despite Vladimir Putin’s claims that Russia was there to “demilitarize” and “denazify” the country, and to somehow “free” it – though as more than one person in the film points out, the Russian offensive has resulted in ordinary citizens being freed from their lives, their homes, their families.The director’s first film about Ukraine, “Winter on Fire,” was an on-the-ground look at the 2013-2014 Maidan uprising, in which student protests against the Russian-backed president drew a brutal response but resulted in the removal of the president.

The Ukrainian cast and crew of Luxembourg, Luxembourg — premiering in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival — today used their Lido photo call as a powerful call for support of Ukraine’s families.

"Dancing with the Stars" pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy is sharing what it was like being in Ukraine when the war broke out and what he's doing to help his homeland.  Chmerkovskiy, who was born in Ukraine but is also a U.S. citizen, was in Ukraine earlier this year when Russia launched its invasion.The dancer was working as a judge on the Ukrainian version of "Dancing with the Stars" at the time.  When the war first broke out in February, Chmerkovskiy documented his experience of being in Kyiv.

Roger Waters has penned an open letter to Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, suggesting she persuade her husband to work toward a ceasefire with Russia and “stop the slaughter”.The letter from the former Pink Floyd member comes by way of response to Zelenska’s interview on the BBC program Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, which aired on Sunday (September 4.)In it, Zelenska was asked what message she had for British people regarding the rise in energy bills that has come in part due to the current war between Ukraine and Russia.Zelenska said: “People must understand [rising energy costs] are not coming through the West’s support to Ukraine. The prices are going up in Ukraine as well.

Naman Ramachandran The subject of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of the topics of discussion at the Venice Film Festival, bubbled to the surface again on Tuesday with Tilda Swinton making a statement with her hair dyed yellow. “It’s my honor to wear half of the Ukrainian flag,” Swinton said at the press conference for Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter,” when complimented on her look by a journalist. Swinton expressed that it was an honor later during the conference as well. The star wore a light blue top, which complements the dark blue of the Ukraine flag. Shot during lockdown, “The Eternal Daughter” follows an artist and her elderly mother who confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past. Swinton plays both mother and daughter. The names of the mother and daughter in the film are Rosalind and Julie, the names for Swinton and her real life daughter Honor Swinton Byrne in Hogg’s “The Souvenir” and “The Souvenir Part II.”

Christopher Vourlias The pursuit of justice in the wake of unspeakable war crimes is at the heart of Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s timely new feature, “The Kiev Trial.” Produced by Atoms & Void for the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, the film had its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. The trailer can be viewed below. Held in January 1946 in the former Soviet Union, the film’s titular trial was among the first court cases to hold Nazis and their collaborators accountable for atrocities committed during World War II — acts that would come to be known as “crimes against humanity” during the historic tribunals held in Nuremberg, Germany.

A fully loaded lorry left Perthshire on Wednesday full of items to help people in Ukraine.

Several Ukrainian mothers break down as they open up about the trauma their family has lived through during Russia’s invasion in an exclusive clip for NBC News’ upcoming special “Ukraine: A Mother’s War.”The special follows the lives of five Ukrainian mothers, all survivors fighting in different ways. In the clip, which you can watch above, one of the women clutches the hands of foreign correspondent Molly Hunter as she details the horrors she’s been through.“It was all Russians raping, abusing, and torturing our people,” the woman cries.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Is Hillary Rodham Clinton making the fall film festival rounds? The former U.S. secretary of state will be attending the DVF Awards charity gala being held on the sidelines of the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 1 by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg to honor extraordinary women.  Clinton will be flying into Venice prior to her previously announced appearance as a guest speaker at the Toronto International Film Festival. Diane von Furstenberg and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation founded the DVF Awards more than a decade ago. They are being held in Venice for the first time after taking place in Paris last year. This year’s DVF honorees include groundbreaking U.S. director, producer and social justice activist Ava DuVernay; European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde; Ukrainian educator Zoya Lytvyn; climate activist Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim and 10 outstanding women from Afghanistan “who are working to ensure a safe and sustainable future for the most at-risk Afghan women and girls,” a DVF statement said.

Emily Blunt Heading To Mipcom For ‘The English’ Red Carpet Curtain Raiser

Ed Sheeran was joined at his Poland gig on Saturday night by Ukrainian band Antytila – watch them give a live debut of their collaborative remix of ‘2step’.Earlier this year Antytila reached out to Sheeran asking if they could perform remotely at the ‘Concert For Ukraine’ fundraiser event in Birmingham. Organisers refused because the event is “only able to focus on the humanitarian situation” and the band are currently fighting the Russians in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, but Sheeran did say he was going to be checking out their music.Following that, they released a collaborative remix of Sheeran’s track ‘2step’ in May, with Antytila sharing screenshots of conversations they’d had with Sheeran.“I’m up for whatever man, just please keep safe,” Sheeran wrote to the group.

Christopher Vourlias When she arrived in Warsaw just weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Yanina Kucher — an entertainment industry veteran with more than a decade’s experience in her country’s film business — wasn’t prepared for an extended stay. She’d left first Kyiv, then Lviv, with her cousin’s wife and young niece in tow, traveling to neighboring Poland to wait out what she hoped would be a short-lived skirmish. Warsaw felt somehow familiar, less geographically and culturally removed than the alien metropolises of Western Europe. She had a personal and professional network in the Polish capital that was quick to find her a home. Yet her thoughts never strayed far from the war: to the parents who stubbornly refused to leave Kyiv; to the reports of the Russian army’s brutal, terrifying advance. “It’s every day,” she tells Variety. “I have friends who died in this war. I’m always in touch with my relatives and my friends.”