Film about Kherson flooded by Kakhovka Reservoir to be presented at film festival

A film about war and nature in Ukraine will compete for the main prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The film reveals the realities of war, environmental disasters, and the heroism of Ukrainians in the de-occupied territories.

This was reported by the press service of the Ukrainian Film Academy.

The documentary Divya directed by Dmytro Hreshko was selected for the main competition of the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic. The world premiere of the film will take place there - as part of the Crystal Globe Competition program, where the film will compete for the main award - the Crystal Globe.

The creative team started working on the film in the spring of 2022. The filming took place in the de-occupied territories of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, both in wilderness areas and near the frontline.

One of the key episodes was the tragedy of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant: the very next day after the dam was blown up, director Dmytro Hreshko and cameraman Volodymyr Usyk went to the scene and filmed the flooded Kherson, the evacuation of people and animals, and the environmental consequences of the disaster.

At the end of 2024, the director joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and became a member of the Cultural Forces initiative.

The film was produced by Polina German and Hlib Lukyanets, and co-produced by Richard Valk. The music is composed by Sam Slater and the visual design was created by Starlight Creative, the film's team won this award at the Work in Progress pitching of the Odesa International Film Festival.

The 59th Karlovy Vary Film Festival will take place from July 4 to 12, 2025. It is one of the oldest A-class festivals in Europe, along with Cannes, Berlin and Venice.

The trailer of the documentary Kherson:Human Safari- a testimony of Russian terror in one of the epicenters of the war. In the 80-minute film, American filmmaker, journalist and war correspondent Zarina Zabriskie tells the story of Kherson - from the first days of the full-scale invasion, through the occupation, resistance and liberation - to the current drone attacks.

Анна Бальчінос