“Songs of Slow Burning Earth,” the sophomore feature by Ukrainian director Olha Zhurba, has been acquired by Prague-based sales outlet Filmotor ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The documentary will screen Out of Competition in the Official Selection.
The film is described as an “audiovisual diary of Ukraine’s immersion into the abyss of the first two years of Russia’s full invasion,” according to a statement. “[It] is made up of places, occasional characters, rare dialogues, intraframe sounds and silences that capture the chronology of how the war became normalized. Against the backdrop of this (meta)physical landscape of collective disaster, a new generation of Ukrainians aspires to imagine the future.”
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Filmotor’s Michaela Čajková comments: “I was immediately taken with the film and with its well-built long cinematic scenes. It is a visually stunning piece of cinema that offers a sublime look at the full-scale invasion, offering us the acceptance of the reality and the daily presence of the war in the lives of Ukrainians being on the battlefield or in the other parts of the country.
“A world premiere at Venice Film Festival is a fantastic start for the film and we are sure of a strong festival run. The film has been co-produced by ARTE France and has already been acquired by several other European broadcasters, including SVT and DR, and we believe in its potential to attract more VOD and TV buyers.”
“Songs of Slow Burning Earth” is produced by Darya Bassel for Ukrainian production company Moon Man in co-production with Anne Köhncke, co-founder of the six-time Oscar-nominated production company Final Cut for Real (“The Act of Killing,” “Flee”) in Denmark, Kerstin Übelacker for We Have a Plan (Sweden), ARTE France and Film i Skåne.
Bassel adds: “This film has always been more than just a project for our team; it has been our lifeline. It has helped us maintain our sanity, confront the horror our lives have become, and speak the truth. From the first months of our work, we’ve been fortunate to have incredible people and organizations join and support us. I’m especially pleased to announce our new partner, Michaela Čajková from Filmotor. Michaela truly understands the significance of this film as both a subtle and deep work of art and a courageous statement on the war.”
“Songs of Slow Burning Earth” is part of Generation Ukraine, an initiative by the ARTE group aimed at supporting the Ukrainian filmmaking industry by co-producing 12 documentaries.
Zhurba’s feature debut “Outside” premiered at CPH:DOX and Hot Docs in 2022 and went on to win the Willy Brandt Award at the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin and the Japan Prize Award of Honor. She was also the editor of the documentaries “This Rain Will Never Stop” by Alina Horlova (2021) and Alisa Kovalenko’s “Home Games” (2018).
