DIRECTOR: Philip Sotnychenko
STARRING: Andrii Zhurba, Novruz Hikmet, Valeriia Oleinykova
RUNNING TIME: 1 hr 40 minutes
LANGUAGE: Ukrainian, Russian, Azerbaijani
In Ukraine in 1996, 5 months before the moratorium on capital punishment, two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist, investigate a murder of their colleague. Long time ago, both of them were in love with the widow of the deceased. Immersed in the complicated case and long forgotten memories, they create a future where their children have to live, inheriting unrealized aspirations of their parents.
***
La Palisiada is director Philip Sotnychenko's feature film debut. The film's creators describe its genre as post-Soviet noir. It's set in Ukraine in 1996, a few months before the signing of Protocol 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which abolished the death penalty. Special technology was used that combines retro film footage with modern digital technology. The film had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival, where it was presented in the main competition and won the FIPRESCI Award. It was also nominated in the European Discovery section at the European Film Awards. The Ukrainian premiere took place on October 12 during the Kyiv Critics' Week.
The Ukrainian Oscar Committee met on September 9th to choose the film that will represent Ukraine at the 97th Academy Awards. They chose La Palisiada over three over films which were House of the Word. An Endless Novel by Taras Tomenko, We Were Recruits by Liubomyr Levytskyi, and Intercepted by Oksana Karpovych. The Oscar Committee is comprised of 14 members.
The film is produced by Halyna Kryvorchuk, Sashko Chubko and Valeria Sochyvets with support from the Ukrainian cultural fund and production support from the Ukrainian film fund.
La Palisiada is a drama and it was filmed in Uzhhorod and Zakarpattia Oblast in Ukraine.
To check out all previous submissions for Ukraine, click HERE.
STARRING: Andrii Zhurba, Novruz Hikmet, Valeriia Oleinykova
RUNNING TIME: 1 hr 40 minutes
LANGUAGE: Ukrainian, Russian, Azerbaijani
In Ukraine in 1996, 5 months before the moratorium on capital punishment, two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist, investigate a murder of their colleague. Long time ago, both of them were in love with the widow of the deceased. Immersed in the complicated case and long forgotten memories, they create a future where their children have to live, inheriting unrealized aspirations of their parents.
***
La Palisiada is director Philip Sotnychenko's feature film debut. The film's creators describe its genre as post-Soviet noir. It's set in Ukraine in 1996, a few months before the signing of Protocol 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which abolished the death penalty. Special technology was used that combines retro film footage with modern digital technology. The film had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival, where it was presented in the main competition and won the FIPRESCI Award. It was also nominated in the European Discovery section at the European Film Awards. The Ukrainian premiere took place on October 12 during the Kyiv Critics' Week.
The Ukrainian Oscar Committee met on September 9th to choose the film that will represent Ukraine at the 97th Academy Awards. They chose La Palisiada over three over films which were House of the Word. An Endless Novel by Taras Tomenko, We Were Recruits by Liubomyr Levytskyi, and Intercepted by Oksana Karpovych. The Oscar Committee is comprised of 14 members.
The film is produced by Halyna Kryvorchuk, Sashko Chubko and Valeria Sochyvets with support from the Ukrainian cultural fund and production support from the Ukrainian film fund.
La Palisiada is a drama and it was filmed in Uzhhorod and Zakarpattia Oblast in Ukraine.
To check out all previous submissions for Ukraine, click HERE.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“My whole life I was blowing a telescope wondering why there was no music.”
La Palisiada, in Philip Sotnychenko's film, functions as an enigmatic and elusive concept that resists easy categorization. This is a film that explores Ukrainian identity, political structure, and social conventions through a fragmented and chaotic narrative. The audience is forced to engage in a philosophical and abstract meditation on existence and identity. The film’s disjointed style, with its old-video aesthetic and archival feel, enhances the atmosphere of mystery, making it seem like a puzzle the viewer is invited to solve. It becomes a central mystery in the film.
La Palisiada also explores how the official, detached brutality of the state seeps into the personal lives of its citizens, creating a pervasive sense of alienation that stretches from the 1990s to the present day. The gunshots, few as they are, symbolize much more than individual moments of violence, they embody the enduring trauma of a nation and its people.
Philip Sotnychenko's decision to set this event in 1996 is no coincidence. Although Ukraine had declared independence five years earlier, the country was still mired in a post-Soviet limbo, an era marked by institutional stagnation, corruption, and alienation. The VHS aesthetics of the film and its fractured temporal structure reflect this disorienting historical moment, blending the past and present into a blur of unresolved trauma. This era of execution becomes a metaphor for the ongoing violence inflicted by the state, even after the official break from the Soviet system.
The film subtly asks viewers to reflect on the relationship between the brutality of the past and the brutality of the present, and how cycles of injustice and alienation perpetuate themselves across generations. By focusing on the investigators, their families, and their existential malaise, Sotnychenko hints at the deep-rooted social and psychological scars that persist in Ukrainian society.
The title itself, which suggests a "palisade" or barrier, could symbolize a divide, whether psychological, philosophical, or cultural, at the heart of the narrative. The fact that different interpretations of the term have emerged (some claiming it to be ethereal, others likening it to a figure of speech) underscores the film’s intentional refusal to provide a clear-cut definition.
(This review contains spoilers.)
“My whole life I was blowing a telescope wondering why there was no music.”
La Palisiada, in Philip Sotnychenko's film, functions as an enigmatic and elusive concept that resists easy categorization. This is a film that explores Ukrainian identity, political structure, and social conventions through a fragmented and chaotic narrative. The audience is forced to engage in a philosophical and abstract meditation on existence and identity. The film’s disjointed style, with its old-video aesthetic and archival feel, enhances the atmosphere of mystery, making it seem like a puzzle the viewer is invited to solve. It becomes a central mystery in the film.
La Palisiada also explores how the official, detached brutality of the state seeps into the personal lives of its citizens, creating a pervasive sense of alienation that stretches from the 1990s to the present day. The gunshots, few as they are, symbolize much more than individual moments of violence, they embody the enduring trauma of a nation and its people.
Philip Sotnychenko's decision to set this event in 1996 is no coincidence. Although Ukraine had declared independence five years earlier, the country was still mired in a post-Soviet limbo, an era marked by institutional stagnation, corruption, and alienation. The VHS aesthetics of the film and its fractured temporal structure reflect this disorienting historical moment, blending the past and present into a blur of unresolved trauma. This era of execution becomes a metaphor for the ongoing violence inflicted by the state, even after the official break from the Soviet system.
The film subtly asks viewers to reflect on the relationship between the brutality of the past and the brutality of the present, and how cycles of injustice and alienation perpetuate themselves across generations. By focusing on the investigators, their families, and their existential malaise, Sotnychenko hints at the deep-rooted social and psychological scars that persist in Ukrainian society.
The title itself, which suggests a "palisade" or barrier, could symbolize a divide, whether psychological, philosophical, or cultural, at the heart of the narrative. The fact that different interpretations of the term have emerged (some claiming it to be ethereal, others likening it to a figure of speech) underscores the film’s intentional refusal to provide a clear-cut definition.
