Grand Prix Semaine de la critique | Locarno Film Festival 2022
Best Documentary Film | Adelaide International Film Festival 2022
Audience Award for the Best Documentary Film | Trieste Film Festival 2023
Theatre • Art Therapy • Ukrainian Youth • Trauma of War • Shakespeare Date of Completion: 2022 | Run Time: 85 minutes | Language: Ukranian & Russian with English subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Directors: Elwira Niewiera & Piotr Rosołowski | Producers: Magdalena Kamińska, Agata Szymańska, & Matthias Miegel | Scriptwriters: Elwira Niewiera & Piotr Rosołowski | Director of Photography: Piotr Rosołowski | Editing: Agata Cierniak | Sound: Jonathan Schorr
A few months prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, five young women and men participate in a unique stage production that attempts to relate their war experiences to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. For each of them, the stage is a platform to express their grief and trauma through the famous question, “to be or not to be,” a dilemma that applies to their own lives. The protagonists fight against disappointment, powerlessness, and anger, trying to put their lives back in order while processing their painful past: SLAVIK, who went through a hell of war and captivity as a soldier, KATYA, who longs for her mother’s forgiveness for joining the army, RODION, who escaped from Donbas and is now facing growing homophobia, ROMAN, who is still struggling with the traumatic memories of his war experience as a paramedic on the battlefield, and OXANA who struggles on an artistic frontline as an actress. The rehearsals for the play are combined with an intense glimpse into the characters' lives: a powerful portrait of a generation coping with the trauma of war which, after Russia's invasion, is now their present and future alike.
These young Ukrainians talk about the cruelty of war and their own experiences of it, including torture, collecting the bodies of those killed and their suicidal thoughts. They share intense emotions, including aggression, as they prepare for their performance. They also discuss the plight of people in Donetsk.
Unpacking Trauma | Modern Times Review
Locarno review: The Hamlet Syndrome (2022) | Ubiquarian
"Stories That Need to Be Told" | Filmmaker Magazine
Being young in Ukraine: "Hamlet is a kind of filter" | News in Germany
AWARDS
Golden Hobby-Horse for the Best Polish Film | Krakow Film Festival 2022
Grand Prix Semaine de la critique | Locarno Film Festival 2022
Best Documentary Film | Adelaide International Film Festival 2022
Best Documentary Film I Watch Docs Human Rights Film Festival Warsaw 2022
Audience Award for the Best Documentary Film | Trieste Film Festival 2023
Roman Brodmann Award for Political Documentary - Germany
FESTIVALS
International Festival of Documentary and Animated Film DOK Leipzig 2022
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2022
Baltic Sea Docs Riga 2022
DOC NYC New York's Documentary Festival 2022
Cambridge Film Festival 2022
Leeds International Film Festival 2022
CPH:DOX* | Copenhagen Int. Documentary Film Festival 2023
European Film Forum SCANORAMA 2022
Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2022
ZagrebDox - International Documentary Film Festival 2023
Human Rights Film Festival Zurich 2022
Screening at Columbia University 2022
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2023
Dublin International Film Festival 2023
Millenium Film Festival 2023
Crossing Europe Film Festival 2023
Bolzano Film Festival Bozen 2023
One World Romania International Human Rights & Documentary Film Festival 2023
Ukraine Month in Europe 2023
Cinéma du Grütli, Geneve 2023