The Ukraine-Turkey production war drama "Klondike," directed by Maryna Er Gorbach and co-produced by Mehmet Bahadır Er, has won the "Best Director" award in the "World Cinema Dramatic" category of the Sundance Film Festival, a prominent film festival, where it premiered.
"A film about the choices we make as the world is falling apart, giving life to it with its meticulously set framing, elegantly woven story and the performance of the actors," the jury said regarding the film as it gave writer-director Gorbach the "Best Director" prize.
This year, the "World Cinema Dramatic" jury consisted of The Museum of Modern Art curator La Frances Hui, Egyptian filmmaker and Cairo Film Festival Director Mohamed Hefzy, and British director Andrew Haigh.
Director Gorbach, thanked the film crew, the actors, the institutions that supported the film, and the audience and wrote sincere comments. She added that she hopes the occupation in Ukraine will come to an end and experience the peaceful and beautiful days they deserve.
"Klondike," supported by the Ukrainian State Film Agency and the General Directorate of Cinema of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the co-production of TRT 12 Punto, received great praise from foreign press and cinema critics at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film focuses on the story of expectant parents Irka and Tolik who live in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, a disputed territory besieged by the separatist groups in the early days of the Donbas war.
Their nervous anticipation of their first child’s birth is violently disrupted as the vicinal crash of the civilian passenger flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, elevates the forbidding tension enveloping their village. The looming wreckage of the downed airliner and an incoming parade of mourners emphasize the surreal trauma of the moment.
As Tolik's separatist friends expect him to join their efforts, Irka's brother is enraged by suspicions that the couple has betrayed Ukraine. Irka refuses to be evacuated even as the village gets captured by armed forces, and she tries to make peace between her husband and brother by asking them to repair their bombed house.
Gorbach creates a meaningful, empathetic ode to resilience as the film viscerally delineates the couple’s dawning uncertainty of life in a warzone. The camera pans the damage to their home and village in poignant recognition that the fabric of their lives has also been permanently altered.
"Klondike" will make its European premiere with the participation of the team at the "Panorama Section" of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, which will take place between Feb. 10 and 20.
