Two Ukrainian films win awards at Berlinale

Two Ukrainian films won awards at the 73rd annual Berlin International Film Festival.

Source: Ukrainian State Film Agency on Facebook

Details: The short film It’s a Date by Nadia Parfan received a special mention from the International Jury.

The film tells the story of life in Kyiv during the full-scale war in the country.

The film festival jury compared the film story to the short film of the same name by the French director Claude Lelouch.

"The director manages to liberate the farcical short film of 1976 and turn it into something more complex, where the urgency has reasons; it is connected to the war, not to a macho whim, especially since the Ukrainian soldier on leave is a woman," the jury said. 

The award was also given to the Ukrainian-German documentary by Mila Zhluktenko and Daniel Asadi Faezi, Waking Up in Silence.

The film received a special award for the best short film in the Generation Kplus program. The film also received 2500 euros from Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk, a German charity organisation for children.

The film tells the story of the war through the eyes of Ukrainian women and children who were forced to take refuge in Germany due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

"We were touched by the film's confident approach. It powerfully evokes a sense of place and history, as it offers an important snapshot of the present," the film festival said.

Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman's film Superpower was the centrepiece of the Berlinale.

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