New Europe Film Sales is set to launch international sales on “Stepne,”the debut feature of Ukraine’s Maryna Vroda, a best short Cannes Palme d’Or winner, which was announced this July 5 morning as part of Locarno’s main International Competition.
Born in Kyiv, Vroda won a Palme d’Or in 2011 for her short “Cross Country” (“Kross”), a seemingly allegorical psychological drama about a boy who is forced to run, then does so willingly, ending up watching his classmates running a senseless cross-country race as a boy rolls in a transparent ball in a river. “Kross” was inspired by Vroda’s memories of physical education lessons. “Stepne” is equally personal, coming to Vroda when her grandparents died. In it, a middle-aged man travels to his family home to care for his dying mother. He meets his brother and a woman he loves and thinks back to his life choices such as leaving to live in a big city. Then, just before dying, her mother tells her about a treasure she’s buried in the shed.
Written by Vroda and Kirill Schuvalov, and lensed by Andrii Lysetskyi, “Stepne” won a Ukrainian Films Now project showcase at the 2022 Cannes Marche du Film. A co-production between Ukraine, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, the feature is produced by Vroda for her Vrodastudio label and co-produced by Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Koi Studio, New Europe Film Sales and Kerekes Film. Andrea Wohlfeil, Agnieszka Dziedzic, Jan Naszewski, Marcin Luczaj and Peter Kerekes produce.
“As a filmmaker, I was always interested in the topic of disappearance, vanishing, departure, and parting with something really valuable, Vroda said.
That refers to the disappearance of the whole system of social relations between people, “erasing the past of a person or the state due to changes in a social structure; it is a farewell to these elusive things that would never come back.”
“‘Stepne’ is an elegiac tale with silence as one of the main characters. It’s the stillness that covers the endless Ukrainian steppes and echoes in the sounds of the past generations,” Vroda added.
“We have been following Maryna’s career since she won the Cannes’ Palme d’Or for best short film. I’m happy that Locarno recognized this delicate and personal movie and that ‘Stepne’ and its people won’t be forgotten,” NEFS head Jan Naszewski told Variety.
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