The Swan Song of Fedor Ozerov

His guitar is out of tune and Fedor (25) isn’t in the best of moods. At the end of the year, the threat of World War III is constantly on the news, which he listens to hungover. While his sister Nina is focused on activism, the apathetic musician becomes active for one thing only: his desire to form a band and write songs. But for that he needs his missing lucky pullover! In ever more obsessive fashion, he sets out in search of the magical object, which is linked to his hope for creative inspiration: an odyssey-cum-detective story driven by great music that leads him through the flats of friends, women and strangers and into conversations with comical characters whose angst is only exceeded by their egos. Everyone here is looking for meaning, kindred spirits or just some intimacy in the face of the end of the world. Combining wit, poetry, Orpheus & Eurydice, orcs & elves and short magical animations, Yuri Semashko creates a portrait of a creative generation defying the weight of the world in a friendly, innocent tone. Born in Belarus and now in exile in Poland, he allows the real horror of repressive systems to simmer under the surface. His microbudget debut is humorous by design.
by Yuri Semashko (Director, Screenplay)
with Viachaslau Kmit, Violetta Rahachova, Pavel Haradnitski, Anastasiya Rysik, Alexey Lyubchenko, Pavel Mikhalenia, Mike Mazur, Mikhail Zui
Lithuania / Germany 2025 Belarusian, Russian 78' Colour World premiere | Debut film

With

  • Viachaslau Kmit
  • Violetta Rahachova
  • Pavel Haradnitski
  • Anastasiya Rysik
  • Alexey Lyubchenko
  • Pavel Mikhalenia
  • Mike Mazur
  • Mikhail Zui

Crew

Director Yuri Semashko
Screenplay Yuri Semashko
Cinematography Siarhei Kavaliou
Editing Yuri Semashko
Music Sinie Gory
Sound Design Laura Matissek
Production Design Yuri Semashko
Animation Maja Bühler
Producer Kęstutis Drazdauskas
Co-Producers Leonid Kalitenya, Marc-Daniel Dichant, Christian Riegel, Vladimir Kozlov

Produced by

Artbox

Shoot’n’Post

Belarusian Filmmakers Network

Singo

Yuri Semashko

Now based in Warsaw, Yuri Semashko was born in Minsk, Belarus, in 1993 and is an engineer by training. A self-taught filmmaker, he has created several short films and animations, including Blood and Karaoke (exground filmfest 2024), Garbage Head (International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2023) and When I Was a General (2021). In 2024, he finished filming his first feature film, The Swang Song of Fedor Ozerov, which was presented in November 2024 at the Work in Progress session at Cottbus Film Festival.

Filmography

2021 Kogda ya byl general (When I Was A General); short film 2022 Musornaya golova (Garbage Head); short film 2023 Krov i karaoke (Blood and Karaoke); short film 2025 The Swan Song of Fedor Ozerov

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025