This year Venice Film Festival will see a solid presence of Ukrainian filmakers.

The main competition will feature Valentyn Vasyanovych’s ‘Reflection while Oleh Sentsov’s ‘Rhino’ and Peter Kerekes 107 mothers will debut at the festival sidebar Orizzonti section.  107 mothers is a co-production by Slovak, Czech and Ukrainian filmmakers.

Valentyn Vasyanovych’s ‘Reflection’ pictures a story of a doctor who finds trouble fitting in and re-connecting with his daughter and ex-wife after he returns from the conflict zone in Eastern Ukraine. The film was produced by Arsenal films and ForeFilms in partnership with Ukraine’s Culture Ministry.

Oleh Sentsov started making his ‘Rhino’ in 2012 but in two years’ time the production was put on hold following arrest of the film director by Russian intelligence services and his imprisonment on fabricated charges. Sentsov got it back on track in 2019, soon after his release from prison. Co-produced by Ukrainian, Polish, and German filmmakers, the project got support from the Ukrainian State Film Agency, the Polish Film Institute, the German film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Eurimages.Set in 1990s, the feature centers on a story of a regular man-turned-criminal nicknamed ‘Rhino’. The film was shot on location in and around Kryvi Rih, Kyiv, and Lviv in late 2020.

107 Mothers (Ukrainian title ‘Censor’) is a film directed by a Slovak filmmaker Peter Kerekes and produced by Denis Ivanov’s Arthouse Traffic.  The film heroine Lesya finds herself in Odessa detention facility among dozens of women – wives, single mothers, widows of different ages and backgrounds.

Venice Film Festival is set to  on September 1 and will have 53 films competing in three sections  -main section, Orizzonti, and short film.