2022 ‘Клондайк’ Directed by Maryna Er Gorbach
The story of a Ukrainian family living on the border of Russia and Ukraine during the start of the war. Irka refuses to leave her house even as the village gets captured by armed forces. Shortly after they find themselves at the center of an international air crash catastrophe on July 17, 2014.
Turkish Radio & Television Kedr Film Protim Video Production Ukrainian State Film Agency ArtHood Entertainment
Klondike - A Guerra na Ucrânia, 沒有煙硝的日子, 클론다이크, فتحة الجدار, 克朗代克, Клондайк
USA
Sundance Film Festival (Virtual)
Germany
Berlin International Film Festival - Panorama
UK
BFI London Film Festival
USA
Brazil16
Ukraine
Brazil
Germany
UK
USA
Ukraine
KLONDIKE tells the story of an expecting couple caught in the middle of the Russian-Ukraine Donbas war. Visually striking and precise camerawork, solid production design & an unsuspectingly layered soundscape. A simmering ant-war film with a gut wrenching third act and a final shot that floored me. I just wish it was paced a bit better before we got to the finale.
Sundance #20
Sundance #18
Had this one in my notes for awhile, but I found the perfect time to talk about this film due to conflict between Russia and Ukraine as of right now. The story follows Ira and Tolik, a Ukrainian couple who is about to have their first kid. Unexpectedly a plane crashes near the Russia and Ukraine border, the debris from the crash destroyed a side of their house and it’s up to them if they want to leave or stay. Before long some separatist (pro-Russia) friends of Tolik shows up and tries to spread their ideology and forces the couple to cook/feed them. Ira’s brother, Yaryk also shows up to try and get both them out of town…
🇺🇦Ukrainian Entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards 🏆
- What are you naming the baby?
- "Vladimir".
- Really nice name.
Means "Piece of Shit".
😂💔
Sundance 2022 Film Festival #1
Just fantastic. A modern anti-war film written and directed by a woman from a country that is currently fighting one. This was certainly a bleak start to this year’s fest, echoing Bergman's Shame, but the authenticity, atmosphere, intensity and clear passion in the making all generate an incredibly tough act to follow. It's brilliantly made from the cinematography to the production design to the sound design, amazing performances, and pacing; every aspect works to make an unforgettable slow burn with an even better ending. The movie is over, I let the credits run, but all I could do was sit and think about what I just saw. In all an exhilarating movie, I’m not going to forget this for a long time.
Sundance 2022
Klondike hace un increíble trabajo al crear escenas y momentos, más cuando se trata de las actuaciones, el blocking y la increíble fotografía. Sin embargo, hay una falta de fluidez entre todos esos momentos, y a pesar de que todo indica que la película se construye hacia una gran catarsis, al final todo se siente vacío.
Gut-wrenching and thought-provoking.
A powerful tribute to women made by a woman who has experienced first-hand the consequences of war. Set during the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War and the shooting of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, Klondike is a reminder of the impact of war on people's lives, especially women, and it couldn't be more relevant right now, considering the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a film that leaves you absolutely incensed, as there are some incredibly sickening moments of gender violence. Ukrainian Filmmaker Maryna Er Gorbach skilfully depicts the viewpoint of a pregnant woman living near the Ukrainian-Russian border, who refuses to leave her home in spite of the invasion of armed forces, destined to…
Sundance 2022: #2 (World Cinema Dramatic Competition)
Hate having to come out of a movie with almost nothing to say when everything else is so admirable, but that's the general impression that Klondike sadly left me with. But nonetheless, there's a lot to be admired about how it's crafted and the way in which it depicts the damages left behind in the face of war, and how the women at hand must cope.
Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with any of it - but I respect it a great deal.
A harshly honest slow burn following a couple in 2014 set during the current Russo-Ukrainian War. The film has many atmospheric long takes and a good sense of using its limited location emotionally impactfully. The two lead performances are fantastic, especially Oxana Cherkashyna. Fantastic reservation with its use of music. The wartime setting gives the films some vibes of Bergman’s Shame, but I enjoyed this film much more and this definitely stands on its own. The first two acts definitely take their time - a bit redundant at a point or two - but the final act is absolutely incredible and earned. I love where the film ended.
Films rarely get to be as timely as Maryna are Gorbach’s Klondike, a Ukrainian drama set in the Donbas region during the early months of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Premiering just about a month before Russia’s full-scale invasion, it’s difficult to view Klondike beyond the tragic relevance of its timing. But even if the world had taken the preferred course of action and Putin hadn’t made the eventual call to arms, Gorbach’s efforts would still shine as a poignant condemnation of wartime occupation and the consequences of constantly looming displacement.
That Klondike was co-produced in Turkey is evident from the outset; though shooting in the Odessa region (thanks for that one, Joren), Gorbach—who directs solo for the first time after several…
Sometimes a single image can be strong enough to support the weight of an entire film, even a film as heavy as Maryna Er Gorbach’s horrifyingly domestic anti-war drama “Klondike,” which fixes its gaze upon a feisty pair of Ukrainian farmers who live along the Russian border. It does so by blowing a giant hole into the side of Tolik (Serhill Shadrin) and Irka’s (Okshana Cherkashyna) house in the opening scene, as an errant mortar shell — misfired by the Kremlin-friendly separatists next door in the middle of the night — obliterates the outer wall of the married couple’s living room as they argue over whether or not to flee Hrabove and raise their unborn child somewhere else.
The exasperated…
