A Bit of a Stranger [+lire aussi :
critique
interview : Svitlana Lishchynska
fiche film], the new documentary helmed by Ukrainian filmmaker Svitlana Lishchynska, is set to celebrate its world premiere in the Panorama strand of this year’s Berlinale (15-25 January – see the news).

In the movie, the director also becomes a protagonist as she follows four generations of women in her family, including herself, as they explore how their ethnic identity has been destroyed through Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Growing up in Mariupol during the Soviet era, Lishchynska faced suppression of her individuality. In independent Ukraine, she struggled to find her identity, which had an impact on her daughter Alexandra’s upbringing.

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Today, each woman in the family faces a different political reality. When war disrupts their lives, Svitlana’s mother, Valentina, is forced to move from Mariupol to Kiev permanently, while Alexandra and her daughter flee to the UK. All of them embark on an emotional journey shaped by newfound memories and family history.

Talking about her project, Lishchynska tells Cineuropa: “I started developing this film before the war. It was supposed to be a local, Ukrainian story. I’m originally from Mariupol, which was a very Russified area of Ukraine, and it was important for me to make a film about the colonised part of our consciousness in Eastern Ukraine. Outwardly, my family did not seem to suffer because of the Soviet regime. It was an ordinary family, like many others: no torture, no prisons. They just took away all the property from my great-grandmother Vasylisa’s family, and forcibly sent them and their eight children to Mariupol.

“I planned to film my home where I grew up, my family, my cousins, my aunt and some residents of the city who attended free Ukrainian language courses. The feeling of the impending war was already in the air, and I thought it would be even more critical to talk about Russification in Ukraine. Today, Russia wants to turn back the clock, luring you with delicious ice cream and [perfect] order. But where does it really want to lead us? What are the risks for people who submit to the totalitarian system and accept the situation? I propose to look honestly at our past, rejecting nostalgia. And say goodbye to it forever.”

A Bit of a Stranger was produced by Anna Kapustina (The Earth Is Blue as an Orange [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Iryna Tsilyk
fiche film]) for Ukrainian outfit Albatros Communicos Film, and co-produced by ZDF/ARTE, Fredrik Lange for Vilda Bomben Film AB (Sweden), and Anthony Muir and Kristina Börjeson for Film i Vast (Sweden). Film Harbour, the distribution company newly launched by former CEO of Deckert Distribution Liselot Verbrugge, is selling the picture.

Check out our exclusive trailer below: