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2020 Berlinale Generation presents the Ukrainian documentary “The earth is blue as an orange” which already won the documentary directing award at this years Sundance film festival. In a loving way the film follows single mother Anna and her four children as they document their lives on the Ukrainian/Russian boarder trough their own film project. Director Iryna Tsilyk manages to draw a deeply touching portray of a family trying to bring normality and hope into a life marked by war. The outstanding camera work creates pictures that are able to transport a feeling of surrealistic normality in circumstances who are terrifying real. With her first documentary feature film Iryna Tsilyk reminds us that although the media presents is decreasing the war between Ukraine and Russia is still going on. In our interview she talks about her film, a surrealistic place and the power of cinema. THE FAMILY Iryna Tsilyk and the family portrayed in film got to know each other trough the Ukrainian pro...

A poem about the Ukrainian documentary film "The earth is blue as an orange".   SCENE 1 TAKE 4  The sound of bombs destroys houses and thoughts  at night her child sleeps with open eyes  The moon hides behind tired chimneys  so it doesn't have to see the bullet holes:  Blue window frames  In the shadow of the Eastern Bloc buildings they step on the sound of shards  and surrealism embraces reality  A family on the borderline films  the orange dust from Красногорівка  "Сподіваюся"  The focal length of children's dreams reaches as far as Kiev  where you hold the lens on rippling fountains  The mirror reflex has become weak  but the pulse is still high  "Yesterday the sky was red"  Orange laughter drowns out the grey  and the saxophone playing is louder than the bombs  The toy tank drives over grandma's back  and all I can think about is:...

In 2017 the Berlinale presented the Ukrainian documentary "Shkola nomer 3" as part of the Generation 14+ programme. Three years later a Ukrainian Filme made it into the programme again: "The earth is blue as an orange", providing insight into life in the Donbas - the border region between Ukraine and Russia. For even if presence in media decreases, the war on the border continues.  The following text is a media-extraction: a collage of current Facebook posts of people I met on my trip to Ukraine in 2017. It is an attempt to convey the feelings of people whom, as an outsider, I cannot put into words. This is how this picture of current times is created, supplemented by analogue photographs taken during my journey to Ukraine. BARBED WIRE AND PLASTIC FLOWERS  About the Ukrainian normandíö, or the village Berdânsʹke, where the sea was mined.  Today the cemetery is placed in front of a stone monument to the victims of the Holodomor, all over the square, whi...

THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE Regie Iryna Tsilyk Ukraine/Litauen 2020 Produktion Anna Kapustina, Giedrė Žickytė Kamera Viacheslav Tsvietkov Montage Ivan Bannikov, Iryna Tsilyk mit Ganna Gladka, Myroslava Trofymchuk, Anastasiia Trofymchuk, Vladyslav Trofymchuk, Stanislav Gladky, Olena Gladka, Olga Gladka, Danylo Dydenko Russisch, Ukrainisch engl. UT · 74 Min. Dokumentarische Form Di. 25.02. 14:30 Uhr Zoo Palast 1 Do. 27.02. 16:15 Uhr Zoo Palast 2 Fr. 28.02. 17:00 Uhr CinemaxX 1 So. 01.03. 17:00 Uhr Cubix 8 In den Straßen fallen Schüsse, explodieren Granaten. Im Haus versuchen vier Geschwister gemeinsam mit ihrer Mutter, den Katzen und der Schildkröte, Frieden zu finden und einen normalen Alltag zu organisieren. Seit fünf Jahren tobt im ukrainischen Donbas der Krieg. Er hat mich schnell reizbar und böse werden lassen, meint Nastja. Ihre Schwester Myroslava, die Kamera studieren möchte, sagt: Krieg ist wie eine Leere. Um gegen das schwarze Loch anzukämpfen, dreht sie ei...