Ukrainian Film for Rotterdam Festival

January 25, 2008

For the first time ever, a Ukrainian feature film will compete for the grand prize at the Rotterdam International Film Festival – the major forum of avant-garde and art-house movies. The debut film by Ihor Podolchak, “Las Meninas,” named after the legendary painting by Diego Velazquez, will premiere in the Rotterdam festival on Jan. 25.

Previously, the only Ukrainian film to be shown at Rotterdram was “U Reki” (“By the River”), by Yeva Neyman, and it was merely a part of the informational program and wasn’t included in the official contest.

“Las Meninas” is the first feature film by Podolchak, who not only directed it, but also wrote the screenplay for it and produced the movie together with Ihor Diurych. The erotic musical fragment of the film was created by American music video maker and photographer Dean Karr, who produced videos for Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Ozbourne, Duran Duran, and others.

“Las Meninas” is a psychological drama about a family living in the city suburbs in an old villa, which looks more like a stage setting than a real house. The main character is a young man sick with asthma and eczema. He uses his diseases as a means of terrorizing and keeping his parents and sister obedient, turning their life into a kind of ritual, according to the film’s site. Among the actors starring in the film are Mykola Veresen, Liubov Timoshevska, Dmitriy Cherniavsky and Hanna Yarovenko.

The festival will be held from Jan. 23 to Feb. 3. “Las Meninas” will be competing for the main prize with 14 other films: five of them from the Middle East, four European (Denmark, Sweden, Greece and the Netherlands), three joint Latin American-European productions, one from the US and one from Kazakhstan.

The jury of the festival this year will include Russian actress, director and producer Renata Litvinova, Iranian director Jafar Panahi, Singapore director Royston Tan and deputy director of the Film Museum in the Netherlands, Rieks Hadders.
Alexandra Matoshko, Kyiv Post, Jan 24, 2008.

More at IFFR site.