Stepne

A village in Ukraine, near the Russian border. The only thing that slightly disturbs the peace there is the occasional death of an elderly person. That is also why Anatoly returns there: to take care of his dying mother. The third important character in Stepne is the landscape. Maryna Vroda won the Palme d'Or for best short film at Cannes in 2011 and now finally has her first feature film out, immediately winning the award for best director at Locarno. Vroda combines the story of mother and son with gripping, harrowing, seemingly documentary slices of life of the villagers. Tales about life in the Soviet era with an underlying idea: shared sorrow is half sorrow. Stepne is a strong piece of slow cinema, wistful and incantatory, about how we need to dissect the past to understand the present.

“Maryna Vroda’s richly lensed feature debut is a melancholic look at a dying part of north-eastern Ukraine that’s seemingly untouched by the present war, and while the narrative holds interest thanks especially to the protagonist, it’s the documentary-like scenes that are the film’s heart.” - The Verdict