Two Ukrainian films to be screened at Cannes Film Festival

The Ukrainian State Film Agency reported the information.

The two films, created with the support of the State Film Agency, will be shown at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, which runs this year from May 14 to 25. Thus, the drama Forever-Forever by Ukrainian director Anna Buriachkova and the ironic detective story La Palisiada by director Philip Sotnychenko will be screened.

Anna Buriachkova's film Forever-Forever is about teenagers who survived the 1990s. The film's protagonist, high school student Tonia, moves from a school in the city center to another in a residential area and finds herself in the company of desperate teenagers. Soon, Tonia falls in love with Zhurik, and later with Sania. 

"This film is a love song dedicated to the confused teenagers of the late 90s who grew up in the midst of post-Soviet ruin, having learned the rule that if no one loves you, you will not survive. In search of this love and verification of our existence in the eyes of others, we lived, tolerating violence and injustice. Those who later learned to choose themselves, to defend their own boundaries, both in private and in public life, and most importantly, at the level of the country and our independence," says Buriachkova about the film.

The post-Soviet noir La Palisiada tells the story of a forensic psychiatrist who is confronted with the complicated story of a police officer's murder a few months before the signing of Protocol 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which abolishes the death penalty. 

The Cannes Film Festival opened on May 14 at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. During the opening ceremony, three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep received the Palme d'Or from French actress Juliette Binoche.

Gerwig, whose film Barbie crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office, became the first American director to serve as the head of the Cannes Film Festival jury. She also received an enthusiastic welcome at the Grand Théâtre Lumière in Cannes.

The opening film of the festival was Quentin Dupieux's comedy Le Deuxième Acte. The main competition will also feature a film by Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie.

The program of special screenings will include the premiere of Sergei Loznitsa's film The Invasion, about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, at the Cannes Film Festival, Loznitsa spoke out against "a total ban on Russian cinema and against a boycott of Russian culture," saying that in some respects the position of Ukrainians "coincides with the position of the Russian FSB."

Hollywood director and producer George Lucas will receive an honorary Palme d'Or for his contribution to cinema at the closing ceremony of the 77th Cannes Film Festival.