documentary project
Small village on the banks of the Dniester river in western Ukraine, is home to a Ukrainian religious community named Kashketnyky (literally, wearers of a headdress).Here men and boys are obliged to wear these hats, while women - kerchiefs.
This closed religious community lives according to their own strict rules, very isolated from the outside world. For instance, they’re not allowed to use electricity and modern healthcare, banned from marrying outside the community, or entering regular schools or joining the army. Occasionally a strange member of the community comes out against this order to leave looking for new horizons.
The community’s efforts to distance from the outside world are often impeded by the annual floods that take everything on their way and change the landscape of the village’s banks. Nowadays floods are a regular occurrence due to climate change – sometimes they happen several times per year, in spring and summer. They always do a great damage to the village, taking boats, ruining gardens and houses, damaging fences, and sometimes even taking lives. Together with the floods comes all the trash and plastic of the modern world – exactly what the community is against. In times of such a great natural threat, villagers unite against it.
When an even more powerful and destructive flood arrives under the banner of the russian army, the community has no other choice but to unite beyond their own comfort. Despite the lack of information due to absence of electricity, the villagers gradually start going against their own rules, joining the outside world to oppose the enemy.
PROJECT TEAM
DMYTRO SUKHOLYTKYY-SOBCHUK, scriptwriter
Ukrainian writer and film director. He graduated from the Karpenko-Kariy National Film, Theater and Television University. Participant in Berlinale Talents, Locarno Film Academy, founder of the Terrarium scriptwriting platform. First noticed for his short film WEIGHLIFTER, an EFA nominee and winner of the prize for best short film at Angers, as well as the Grand Prix of the Warsaw IFF. His first feature film PAMFIR was developed at TorinoFilmLab, Midpoint and Cannes’s Cinefondation, and was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.
Filmography:
2022 - PAMFIR (fiction film) Directors’ Fortnight (Cannes film festival 2022)
2018 - WEIGHTLIFTER (short, sports drama, 30 min)
Coproduction Ukraine-Poland. Production: Studio Munka, Studio Garmata Film, Polish Film Service.
NOMINATION at the 32nd ceremony of EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS.
2015 - INTERSECTION, documentary (20 min), coproduction Ukraine-Romania Aristotle’s Workshop. 3 awards among 12 selections for international film festivals.
2013 - KRASNA MALANKA, documentary (52 min) 1-ST PRIZE cadRO, Cronograf
KOSTYNA KARINA, producer
Ukrainian film producer. Graduated from the Institute of International Relations of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Master’s in international business. Karina is a producer and professor. After 10 years of working in advertising, where she became a managing partner at one of Ukraine’s biggest video production companies, Karina followed her heart and chose cinema.
In 2020 she started working as an executive producer of Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s debut feature PAMFIR, in Ukrainian, Polish, French and Chilean coproduction, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 2022 in Directors’ Fortnight. Karina is a producer of documentary projects, as well as several TV series.
Executive producer
PAMFIR (fiction) Directors’ Fortnight (Cannes 2022)
Producer
Documentary SILENT FLOOD, 52 min, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. Tabor Production, Ukraine.
Documentary KYIV’S OCTOBER, 52 min. Nadiya Parfan,coproduction with KOLAM productions France.