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Stop-Zemlia

Generation 14plus 2021
© Oleksandr Roshchyn
“They say when you get goosebumps, your soul touches your body.”

It‘s Masha, Yana and Senia‘s last but one year of high school. Among the thriving pot plants in the classroom and to the sound effects of a Biology lesson about physical signs of stress, the young protagonists grapple with themselves and with one another. 16-year-old Masha is the quiet center of Kateryna Gornostai’s feature debut. Steering clear of both simplified narratives and overly simplistic psychology, the film depicts her as introverted, sensitive and in love with Sasha, another classmate whose aloofness and passivity she finds a perpetual challenge. When Masha is dancing alone in her room at night, high above the rooftops of a city somewhere in the Ukraine, nothing about it feels staged. Rather, it is an invocation of the moment, of genuine emotion – and of pain.
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by Kateryna Gornostai (Written and Directed by)
with Maria Fedorchenko, Arsenii Markov, Yana Isaienko, Oleksandr Ivanov Ukraine 2021 Ukrainian 122' Colour recommendation: 14 years and up

Part of the Berlinale Summer Special

With

  • Maria Fedorchenko (Masha Chernyh)
  • Arsenii Markov (Senia Steshenko)
  • Yana Isaienko (Yana Bratiychuk)
  • Oleksandr Ivanov (Sasha Hanskyi)

Crew

Written and Directed by Kateryna Gornostai
Cinematography Oleksandr Roshchyn
Editing Nikon Romanchenko, Kateryna Gornostai
Music Maryana Klochko
Sound Design Mykhailo Zakutskyi
Sound Oleg Goloveshkin
Production Design Maxym Nimenko
Costumes Alyona Gres
Make-Up Mariia Pylunska
Casting Kateryna Gornostai
Production Manager Andrii Naumchuk
Producers Vitalii Sheremetiev, Vika Khomenko, Natalia Libet, Olga Beskhmelnytsina
Executive Producers Gennady Kofman, Oleksii Zgonik

World Sales

Pluto Film

Produced by

Esse Production House

Photos

Berlinale Meets | Interview

Kateryna Gornostai

© Nikon Romanchenko

Born in Lutsk, Ukraine in 1989, the filmmaker first studied biology and later journalism at the Mohyla Academy in Kyiv. From 2012 to 2013, she attended the Marina Razbezhkina School of Documentary Film and Theatre in Moscow but returned to Kyiv during Euromaidan to film the protests. She then began exploring fictional and hybrid forms. Her feature film debut Stop-Zemlia premiered in the 2021 Generation 14+ section of the Berlinale and won the Crystal Bear for the Best Film. She currently lives and works in Kyiv where she teaches film directing.

Filmography

2015 Viddalik (Away); short film · Skriz maidan (Maidan Is Everywhere); documentary 2017 Buzok (Lilac); short film 2021 Stop-Zemlia 2025 Strichka chasu (Timestamp)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025