Klondike

Heavily pregnant Irka lives with her husband Tolik in a village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. It is July 2014 and fighting is taking place on the nearby Russian-Ukrainian border. A wall is missing in the living room of their house, having fallen victim to the hostilities. This exposes a view of the barren landscape which is becoming a theatre of war. Even so, Irka refuses to leave her home. While Tolik’s separatist friends expect him to join their fight, Irka’s brother accuses him of betraying Ukraine. When a Malaysian Airlines plane crashes nearby, Irka and Tolik initially think of it as another act of war. But the shooting down of passenger flight MH17 by a Russian defence missile is an accident.
Director Maryna Er Gorbach unfolds her sensitive family drama against the backdrop of a military conflict. Skilfully interweaving the personal and political story of the conflict in Ukraine and making good use of a carefully probing camera and excellent actors, she provides a powerful portrait of the banal horror of war.
by Maryna Er Gorbach
with Oxana Cherkashyna, Sergiy Shadrin, Oleg Scherbina, Oleg Shevchuk, Artur Aramyan, Evgenij Efremov
Ukraine / Turkey 2022 Ukrainian, Russian, Chechen, Dutch 100’ Colour

With

  • Oxana Cherkashyna (Irka)
  • Sergiy Shadrin (Tolik)
  • Oleg Scherbina (Yaryk)
  • Oleg Shevchuk (Sanya)
  • Artur Aramyan (Mercenary Commander)
  • Evgenij Efremov (Chief)

Crew

Written and Directed by Maryna Er Gorbach
Cinematography Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi
Editing Maryna Er Gorbach
Music Zviad Mgebry
Sound Design Srdjan Kurpjel
Production Design Mariia Denysenko, Vitaliy Sudarkov, Andrii Hrechyshkin
Costumes Viktoria Filipova
Make-Up Kseniya Halchenko
Casting Tetyana Symon
Assistant Director Nikita Kozlov
Producers Maryna Er Gorbach, Mehmet Bahadir Er, Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi
Executive Producer Ivan Tkachenko

World sales

Protim V.P

Produced by

Kedr Film

Protim V.P

Additional information

info@klondikemovie.com
www.klondikemovie.com

Maryna Er Gorbach

The Ukrainian director studied at the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University and subsequently at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing in Poland. She has been a member of the European Film Academy since 2017. She made the films Black Dogs Barking, Love Me and Omar and Us together with her husband Mehmet Bahadir Er. Klondike is the first film she has written and directed alone.

Filmography

2009 Kara Köpekler Havlarken (Black Dogs Barking); co-director: Mehmet Bahadir Er 2013 Luby Mene (Love Me); co-director: Mehmet Bahadir Er 2019 Omar ve Biz (Omar and Us); co-director: Mehmet Bahadir Er 2022 Klondike

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2022