fiction series
Unspoken is a thriller based on the events of the first days of the Russian full-scale war against Ukraine. Evhenii is rushing from Poland to Ukraine to his wife and three children, who are now in grave danger because of the Russian invasion. Their voices in his phone will tell things left unspoken in the news.
Series of 6 episodes, 25 minutes each. The first season covers 3 days. We live through them together with the main character, who goes on a fierce and dreadful journey to save his family from the sieged town. Evhenii will be in the frame for the whole time. The main means of expression to fuel the viewer’s imagination is Evhenii’s reaction to everything that happens to him, as well as the voices from the phone describing events, feelings, and emotions.
The idea originates from the story of Serhii Perebyinis, who was taking care of his elderly mother in the East of Ukraine when his daughter and two children were killed in a mortar shelling.
He knew they had tried to escape Irpin that day but only learned about their deaths via Twitter, in the report of civilians being shelled during the evacuation. He recognized their suitcases in the photos. In the New York Times interview, Perebyinis mentions that these events must be captured in photos and videos: “The whole world should know what’s happening here.”
PROJECT TEAM
ZHANNA OZIRNA, scriptwriter
Director, screenwriter, script doctor. Participant of Berlinale Talents 2020. Member of the Ukrainian Film Academy and the Directors Guild of Ukraine.
The development of her feature debut Ground Zero was supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. With her film, Zhanna participated in such international script workshops as ScriptEast and Pustnik, La Fabrique Cinéma 2022. She also presented it at the markets of New Horizons Studio+, Rotterdam Film Festival Cinemart, and Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film.
In September 2021, Ground Zero received confirmation of funding from the Ukrainian State Film Agency.
Her short film The Adult was presented at the International Short Film Festival Winterthur (Switzerland) as part of The State of a New Generation screening. In 2017, her film project Bond received a grant from the Oppose Othering program at the GoEast festival in Wiesbaden, Germany. The film received the Special Mention of the Jury at Odesa IFF, the Best Ukrainian Film Award at the Festival of Film and Urbanism “86,” and took part in the online festival “7+7. The best directors of Ukraine and Great Britain.”
DMYTRO SUKHANOV, producer
In 2001, he graduated from the Donetsk National Technical University. Co-owner and producer of Toy Pictures (2009) and Toy Cinema (2014).
Since 2015, a member of several non-governmental filmmakers’ organizations and a co-founder and deputy chairman of the Film Industry Association of Ukraine (2015–2019). Took part in the organization of the Film Commission Workshop in Truskavets (2016) and Eave on Demand (2017), with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency.
2018–2020 – a member of the expert committee at the Ukrainian State Film Agency competitions.
In 2020, selected to the EAVE school (Luxembourg) to participate in the annual Producer’s Workshop.
Selected filmography:
- Legacy of Lies – 2019, fiction feature, dir. Adrian Bol, co-producer
- My Thoughts Are Quiet – 2019, fiction feature, dir. Anton Lukich, producer (KVIFF 2019: Special Jury Award in the East of West section, Odesa IFF 2019: People’s Choice Award, FIPRESCI Award for the Best Ukrainian Film, the Best Actor award)
- Solatium – 2017, short fiction, dir. Kristina Tynkevich, associate producer
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