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MY FATHER IS MY MOTHER'S BROTHER

Director Vadym Ilkov

UKRAINE, 2018, 76 MIN

Awards:
Prix du Jury Régionyon, Most innovative feature film of the International Competition, Visions du reel, Nyon, Switzerland, 2018
Cinematic Vision Award, Camden IFF, US, 2018
Special Mention from The Mermaid Award jury, Thessaloniki IDFF, Greece, 2019
Current Time award, Cinedoc-Tbilisi, Georgia, 2019
Special mention in the category of Family Life in 21st Century, Pärnu Film Festival, Estonia, 2019)
2 nominations at the Ukrainian Film Academy Award 2019 (for the best documentary and for the best editor)
Best National film and Best Director in the National Competition (Odessa IFF 2019)

Festivals:
Visions du reel (Switzerland), Hot Docs (Canada)
Camden IFF (US), Vilnius IDFF (Lithuania)
Antenna IDFF (Australia), Artdocfest (Latvia)
Icaro 21 (Guatemala), RIDM (Canada)
Watch Docs (Poland), Docudays UA (Ukraine)
One World (Romania), International Documentary Film Festival Millenium (Belgium)
Cinedoc Tbilisi (Georgia), Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston (USA)
Thessaloniki IDFF (Greece), Festival EDOC (Ecuador)
Shanghai International Film Festival (China)
Pärnu Film Festival (Estonia, 2019), Odessa IFF (Ukraine, 2019)

Vadym Ilkov films a family that is by no means gives in to clichés, it is free and proud of it, despite some difficult moments, doubts and inevitable tension. The strength of My Father Is My Mother's Brother lies in this freedom, simplicity, intensity of images and the courage of its characters – modern anti-heroes in search of happiness.

Muriel Del Don in Сineuropa

Simple, beautiful and patient, this is observational cinema (with a twist) at a most humane and creative pinnacle.

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The artist and singer Tolik is alone taking care of his niece Katya. Katya is 5 years old. Her mother Anya suffers from psychological problems, she is unemployed and lives on welfare. Katya's biological father disappeared. Tolik became a real father for the little girl. And so Katya says, "My mother is my father's sister".

Tolik's art is about personal freedom and sexual openness. He lives on occasional fees, spends his time at parties, in galleries and nightclubs. With Katya his world gets filled with day-to-day responsibilities of a single parent: to feed, to read a bedtime fairy tale, to play together…

Sometime Tolik and Katya visit Anya, they bring money and food. Katya asks Tolik, "Dad, don't you want to live with Mom at all?" Meanwhile, Anya continues to lose her connection with reality by spending days alone in front of TV in her apartment.

Anya's disease is progressing irreversibly. Tolik records his first music album. And Katya celebrates her seventh birthday.

Vadym Ilkov graduated from Kyiv National University of Theatre, Film and TV in 2000. In 2010 Vadym was the recipient of GAUDE POLONIA (Poland) scholarship in the field of cinematography.

He worked as a director of photography on a number of fiction, documentary and animated films. His recent projects as a DoP include MARIUPOLIS, dir. Mantas Kvedaravicius (world premiere at Berlinale 2016) and VOLCANO, dir. Roman Bondarchuk (world premiere at Karlovy Vary IFF 2018).

Vadym is one of the organizers of the first Ukrainian open-air festival Sheshory (later – Art Pole). It existed for 12 years and combined diverse fields of art. It significantly changed Ukrainian cultural landscape.

His directorial debut is WALTZ ALCHEVSK (Ukraine, 2014, 54’, doc). MY FATHER IS MY MOTHER’S BROTHER is his first feature doc.

team
Director, cinematographer & editor: Vadym Ilkov
Sound Design: Boris Peter & Andriy Rohachov
Producers: Valentyn Vasianovych, Iya Myslytska, Maksym Vasyanovych
Associate Producer: Darya Bassel


funded by UKRAINIAN STATE FILM AGENCY
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contacts

for festivals

Darya Bassel
daryabassel@gmail.com

world sales
Feelsales
info@feelsales.com