Ukrainian writer-director Maksym Nakonechnyi, whose debut feature Butterfly Vision screens in Un Certain Regard, is making a documentary about the plight of animals in Ukrainian zoos during the Russian invasion.
Nakonechnyi has been shooting Those Who Fill The Void With War (working title) in zoos including ones in Kyiv and Odesa. His aim is to keep on filming until visitors are able to return to the zoos, exploring how the animals react to the war and also look at the lives of those who stay to look after them.They include members of the ’zoo patrol’ - the volunteers who have helped evacuate animals caught in occupied and liberated areas.
“Kyiv Zoo luckily is more or less OK. There were no shellings there and they didn’t run out of supplies,” Nakonechnyi said.
However, a private zoo in Kharkiv was hit by rockets and ran out of resources. Last month, its owner was talking about ”euthanasia” for the animals. In Odesa zoo, the shop has been turned into a shelter for small domestic animals whose owners evacuated the city because of the Russian invasion. Hamsters, rats, rabbits and guinea pigs have all been staying there.
Butterfly Vision is being sold in the Marché by Wild Bunch. It is the story of a Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance expert who struggles to resume her life in Ukraine as a soldier and wife after a traumatic period as a prisoner of war. Nakonechnyi co-wrote the screenplay with Iryna Tsilyk.
The film was made through Tabor, the independent Ukrainian production company founded by a group of filmmakers and artists including Nakonechnyi. It is produced by Darya Bassel and Yelizaveta Smith. Funding comes from the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, Ukranian State Film Agency, Croatian Audiovisual Center, Czech Film Fund and Eurimages., in co-production with 4Films (Croatia), MasterFilm (Czech Republic) and Sisyfos (Sweden).
Several of Tabor’s other projects have been affected by the war. The slate includes Maria Stoianova’s archive-based, found footage Fragments Of Ice, which the director has “managed to get to a safe place outside of Ukraine”.
Another feature documentary, Mariia Ponomarova’s Nice Ladies, about “senior” cheerleaders from eastern Ukraine, has had to be postponed
Tabor is also a minority coproducer on Eugene Jung’s Korea-Ukraine documentary Pirated Future, which looks at the blurring of reality between depictions of fictional and real disasters. Part of the film had been due to shoot at Chernobyl but was delayed following the invasion.
Most of these projects had received commitments of support from the Ukrainian State Film Agency but that money is no longer available as a result of the war.
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