Toloka
Mykhailo Illienko, 116 minutes, Drama, Ukrainian with Arabic and English subtitles, 2020, Ukraine.
Based on the ballad “That Catherine’s hut is on the hill…” written by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, about the rescue of Catherine’s lover, whom she saves by posing him as her brother. This story, as a parable, flies throughout Ukraine’s history and reconstructs its dramatic and heroic episodes. Every challenge, including the Chernobyl accident, leaves Catherine without her home. But she is stubborn, as many generations of Ukrainians, in rebuilding her house out of pieces.
The film won 2 awards: an Honorary Distinction at the Athens International Digital Film Festival (2020), and the «Golden Dzyga» for the Best Costume Design, from the Ukrainian Film Academy (2021); it was also nominated for 9 awards in Ukraine.