The film about the evacuation of Ukrainians after the invasion of the Russian Federation won awards at four European film festivals

Polish director Macek Hamela's documentary "From Where To" about the evacuation of Ukrainians at the beginning of a full-scale invasion of Russia has won awards at film festivals in Switzerland, France and Germany over the past week, writes pravda.com.ua.

Documentary film "From where to where"

Hamela's film won the "Best Documentary" nomination at the Zurich Film Festival. It is the second largest festival in the German-speaking world.

"From Where to Where" also won the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's Political Film Award at FilmFest Hamburg. The Ebert Foundation awards films with a socially important context.

"The genre of anti-war films is dominated by films where men wage war. And this film is truly anti-war, because it is told by the victims. It is an antidote to war addiction, it makes visible those whose lives were turned upside down by the start of the war in Ukraine. This big film deserves a big audience," said the jury, recognizing Hamela's work.

In addition, the film won an award at the French film festival "War on Screen International Film Festival" - here he was awarded the "Main Award of the International Jury".

At another film festival in France — Festival 2 Cinema de Valenciennes — the film received three awards at once: the Grand Prix, the Critics' Award and the Students' Award. They were given to one of the heroines of the tape by the refugees from Mariupol, Larisa Sosnovtseva, who currently lives in France.

About the film "From where to where"

The film directed by Machek Hamela shows the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukrainians are forced to give up what they have and flee from the war. They get into a car to Hamela with the most valuable thing they decided to take from home, and his vehicle becomes for them both salvation, a waiting room, a zone of trust, etc. After starting to film his passengers, the director assembled a collective portrait of Ukrainians who had a single goal: to find a safe place in the maelstrom of war.

The world premiere of the film took place at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2023.

Since then, the film has already received a number of awards: for example, the "Best Polish Film" and the "Arthouse Cinema Association Award" at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Polish Film Festival; "The main prize of the jury" at the British film festival Sheffield DocFest; "Special distinction" at the Icelandic film festival IceDocs; "Best Documentary" at the Odesa International Film Festival; The North American premiere of the film took place at the Canadian film festival TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival).

The film was also included in the selection list of the European Film Awards, which are presented annually by the European Film Academy.

"From Where to Where" is a nominee for the Sixth National Film Critics Award "Kinocolo" in the category "Best Documentary Film".

Read also on Newsky "Poland handed over to the military a recreation base taken from the Russian embassy" and look at "Boring Pence" YouTube channels.

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