ESSE Production House

Erik is convinced he has a stone for a heart. That’s why he doesn’t mind that his parents have no time for him, or that he is bullied at school, or that he has no real friends. When his family moves to a villa they inherited, he is confronted by Maria whom Erik's parents want to kick out along with her father. Maria refuses to move and promises to make Erik's life a living hell. As a last attempt to defeat Erik, Maria goes to look for her mother who disappeared two years ago. Together they end up on a fantastical journey to the In-Between-World and Erik learns how hard it really is to wear a heart of stone.

Shortly after the nuclear Chornobyl disaster in 1986, a father risks his life and returns to his deserted apartment to retrieve his front door.

Hanging out with friends, smoking a lot, spinning bottles and kissing, making mistakes, playing, refusing to accept, dreaming with open eyes - life as a teenager can be overwhelmingly beautiful and difficult at the same time. In her debut, the Ukrainian director composes a deeply emotional and multi-layered portrait of a generation whilst seamlessly flowing between the fictional and the documental.

Living in war-torn Eastern Ukraine Anna is an aging single mother who is desperate for a change. Lured by a radio advertisement, she goes to party with a group of American men who are touring the country, searching for love.

Crocodile is a game for a big company. The host shows a word only with the gestures. The one, who guesses it, chooses the next one to lead the game. Anya comes up with a difficult word for Lisa. This New Year Eve turns into a test of their friendship.

In a cheap brothel at the foothills of an Athenian fortress, a man recounts the magnificent events of his life. His search for love and glory is retold and relived by many: a prostitute with an unredeemable past, a gangster haunted by bad luck, an icon painter who has no faith - In one of the stories, the man finds his riches, in another he becomes a vagabond prophet, in yet another he returns home to his wife. Memories betray him, but he knows for sure that in one of these lives, he will be killed.

Yesterday's serviceman Serhii stepping into the new life of a civilian that morning had already lost pace by lunchtime. The transition no longer seems like a walk to him, the day is coming to an end, but a new life still does not begin.

The film investigates the kidnapping and alleged murder of a soldier in Donbas, in 2014. Together with his father, an elderly fisherman from the Southern Ukraine, we follow the trail of his captors. Traveling from the calm Azov coastline to industrial conglomerates, from the furious mining region to the sleepless capital, we try to find the witnesses of the young soldier's final hours, as well as those who could have seen his body. The film uses a wide range of video and audio material including news, voice recordings and interviews. Its complex narrative construction shows the long and winding path of a father who seeks justice for his son's murderers.

A town of 40 000 inhabitants in south-eastern Ukraine is occupied by Russia. Andriy, a 35-year-old Ukrainian priest, sees his church turned into a morgue. He is forced to guard the bodies of Ukrainian civilians who have been shot until the Russians come to collect them. Every three weeks, the Russians collect the bodies and bury them in mass graves to cover up their crimes. For several months, the priest resists, secretly returning the bodies to their families. But winter is approaching and the ground is too frozen to bury the dead. How will he continue to resist as conditions deteriorate even further?