Ukrainian Filmmakers Renew Call for Boycott of Russian Films

Jennie Punter Last week Darya Bassel, the curator of Docudays UA’s industry platform, returned to her home in Kyiv and found herself smiling “like a crazy person” to be back at work and resuming something of a daily routine. “I’m still sitting 12 hours a day with my laptop,” she said during Slava Ukraini, an early morning session that kicked off Day 2 of Hot Docs’ Industry LIVE conference.“There are just some additional tasks on my to-do list,” she continued.

United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Angelia Jolie is visiting the Ukrainian city of Lviv this weekend, located in the western part of the war-torn country.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentParis-based company Indie Sales has acquired Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s debut feature “Pamfir” which will world premiere at Directors’ Fortnight. The banner is handling international sales on the movie. Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk previously directed the short film “Weighlifter,” a European Film Award contender and winner of the Best Short Film Award in Angers.“Pamfir” takes place in Western Ukraine, on the eve of a traditional carnival.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentDaniel Roher, the award-winning director and producer behind Sundance documentary “Navalny,” has signed with Anonymous Content for management.“Navalny” revolves around Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition who survived an assassination attempt by poisoning with a lethal nerve agent in Aug. 2020. The riveting documentary shows how Navalny made shocking discoveries about the attempt on his life during his months-long recovery and decided to return home.The film premiered at Sundance to rave reviews and received both the Audience and Festival Favorite awards.

Poppy Field finally has made its way to virtual cinemas everywhere, available on VOD and digital.The Romanian drama, directed by Eugen Jebeleanu, earned, among other accolades, a Torino Film Festival Best Actor prize for star Conrad Mericoffer for his dynamic performance as closeted gay gendarmerie officer Christi, who lashes out with homophobic violence in order to protect his secret life.Christi’s angry outburst places him at the center of the storm inside a film theater where he and his fellow officers are trying to keep the peace after the screening of a lesbian film is loudly interrupted by a group of anti-LGBTQ protesters.The events of the film were inspired by a real-life 2013 incident in the capital, Bucharest, where anti-LGBTQ protesters shut down a showing of The Kids Are All Right.“I was not in Bucharest at the time. I was in Paris and was working there,” Jebeleanu recalls.

NEW YORK -- A Ukranian journalist imprisoned in Crimea will be honored next month at the PEN America gala. Vladyslav Yesypenko, arrested last year and sentenced recently to six years in a Russian labor camp for alleged possession and transport of explosives, is this year's recipient of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award.Yesypenko, 53, is a freelance correspondent for Krym.Realii Project, a Crimean radio program and news source run by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

seven Ukranian filmmakers urged for a cultural boycott of Russia, claiming that it would be “an attempt to cleanse the world of the propaganda of a terrorist state”.Statements were released by several filmmakers including Volcano director Roman Bondarchuk, Valentyn Vasyanovych (Atlantis) and Nariman Aliev (Homeward) explaining their reasoning.At Visions du Réel, producer Illia Gladshtein and director Nadia Parfan, whose film Heat Singers screened at the festival in 2019, sat on the panel. They were joined by Maksim Nakonechnyi, whose debut film Butterfly Vision will show at Cannes next month, and photographer-director Artem Iurchenko (Cursed Days, 2018).Nakonechnyi has been shooting in Ukraine since the first days of the war in February.

“Better Call Saul”Monday, April 18 at 9 p.m., AMCIt’s been almost two years since the previous season of “Better Call Saul,” Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s sharp-as-a-knife prequel series to their beloved “Breaking Bad.” That’s a long time to wait, especially given that the show left off with Kim (Rhea Seehorn) inching towards the dark side. (Considering she never appears in “Breaking Bad,” we should consider this a very bad thing.) Quite frankly, after Bob Odenkirk’s health scare last year, we’re lucky the show is back at all – and that he is feeling okay! A word of caution, though: you might want to re-watch season 5 before jumping into this new season, just to refresh yourself on the intricacies of the ongoing drug trade and the relationship between franchise heavy Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) and Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton, who stole every scene he had in “Hawkeye”), amongst other things.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe Cannes Film Marché has unveiled the full lineup of its Ukraine in Focus program which will provide Ukrainian filmmakers and producers with networking, pitching and co-financing opportunities over two days during the Cannes Film Festival, on May 21 and 22.Under the program, key market initiatives such as Goes to Cannes, Cannes Docs Showcase and the Producers Network will be skewed towards projects and executives from Ukraine in order to support the country which was invaded by Russia on Feb. 24 and has been at war since then.