Skip links

It’s Not a Full Picture


Date:
December 15, 2022

CO-PRODUCTION FORUM

It’s not a full picture

notTheFullPicture

It’s not a full picture

by Maryna Stepanska
JS Films | Ukraine

Documentary | 2nd feature

Logline

Russian war changed the lives of Ukrainian filmmakers entirely. Some are at the frontline, some volunteering or trying to take care of their kids, but everybody is reflecting. What is the picture the war reveals?

Synopsis

After full scale invasion to Ukraine in February 2022 lives of Ukrainian filmmakers changed dramatically. Making films and art suddenly became a big dilemma for the community, live priorities changed for all of them and the choices they must make too. The film follows several characters who have to make their choices under new life-threatening circumstances. Maryna Stepanska, film director, meets her friends and colleagues and talks about the experience filmmakers are going through. Alisa Kovalenko, film director, voluntarily went to the frontline leaving her little son and husband back home; Oleg Sentsov, film director, after 5 years in Russian prison goes to the frontline putting his career on hold; cinematographers Serhiy Mykhalchuk, Yuriy Gruzinov and producer Volodymyr Yatsenko started to document war crimes from the first day of invasion; Roman Lubiy, film director, started volunteering and then decided to train as a sniper; family of cinematographers Elena Chekhovskaya and Mykhail Markov survived occupation in Irpin, escaped and then return to a destroyed house with their children; Yaroslav Pilunski, cinematographer, joined air intelligence leaving behind his projects. Sooner or later the phrase “I no longer see the point in films” comes from all of them. They all used to transform reality into images, but now are forced to leave the reality they couldn’t imagine they might meet. The film is a mosaic of conversations, observations and reflections.

Director’s Profile

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1982, Maryna Stepanska graduated Karpenko-Kary National University of Film, Theatre and Television (Film Department, specialty: director) in 2004.
Further, Maryna worked at the experimental theatre “School”, where she studied the methodology of working with non-actors. She completed a 6-month ARCHIDOC program for documentary filmmakers at the French film and television school La Fémis.
Her scripted feature debut “Falling” (2017) premiered at Karlovy Vary International film festival and received several awards at the international film festivals and 3 awards at the National Film Awards “Golden Dzyga” in 2018. She writes scripts for other directors as well. Maryna also directed several short films “Men’s work”, “Desaturated”.

Company Profile

JS Films is a company founded by Julia Sinkevych in 2016 to produce arthouse fiction and documentary films with strong artistic vision as well as film festivals and events.