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When the Trees Fall

Marysia Nikitiuk
Convulsions :: Narrative Features
Running Time:88:00 minutes
Event Date(s)
9:30 PM EST
Sunday, November 11
Credits:

Cinematographer: Michal Englert
Editor: Ivan Bannikov, Blazhe Dulev & Milenia Fiedler
Producer: Volodymyr Filippov, Roman Klympush, Serge Lavrenyuk & Igor Savychenko
Cast: Eugen Grigoriev, Sofia Halaimova & Vadym Kovaliov

Earthy, enigmatic, erotically charged and violently bleak, Ukrainian writer-director Marysia Nikitiuk’s impressive feature debut begins like a dystopian fairytale in some godforsaken village that time forgot. Lusty young Larysa writhes naked in a foggy swamp with her ex-jailbird boyfriend Scar, while her curious pipsqueak cousin Vitka sits nervously in the dark forest nearby. Blending post-Soviet drama with magic-realist fantasy, the film evokes Valerie’s Week of Wonders, Hard to Be a God, and the works of Carlos Reygadas—immersing the viewer in an ethereal and intensely sensual hellhole of youth suffocated by patriarchal tradition.

Short Before the FeatureEl Miramiento // Fany de la Chica :: The day of her “Looking ceremony” Isa is not sure of committing herself to Carlos, a gypsy from a good family.

Bio

Born in Ukraine in 1986, she is a director, screenwriter and novelist. She studied at the Taras Shevchenko National University and the Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, both in Kiev. She has worked as a screenwriter since 2012 and began directing her own films in 2014.