Venice: Ukraine Drama ‘Photophobia’ Wins Europa Cinemas Label Award

Scott Roxborough
·2 min read

Photophobia, a drama from Slovakian documentary filmmakers Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík, has won the Europa Cinema Labels award for best European film in the Giornate degli Autori section of the 2023 Venice Film Festival.

The feature dramatizes the experiences of a Ukraine family that, like so many since the Russian invasion began, have lived much of their lives underground, seeking shelter from the shelling in the deep-dug metro stations of the country’s main cities. The film follows 12-year-old Niki and his family who live in the tunnels of the Kharkiv subway station. For Niki’s family, daylight is synonymous with mortal danger, and the only illumination the boy knows is the constant glow of the subway’s neon lights. While aimlessly wandering around the abandoned cars and full platforms, Niki meets 11-year-old Vika and the pair decide to risk a trip to the surface, to feel the sun on their faces.

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“Photophobia is a very original and beautifully observed film set today in an underground Kharkiv metro station in the middle of the war in Ukraine,” the Europa Cinemas jury said in a statement. “But this is no miserabilist cliched war story. We see the way human beings — and children in particular — learn to create a new way of living. There is hope here, and joy in the small things like the occasional luxury of feeling the sun on their faces for example. The film is exceptionally well made, with the cinematography a standout.”

The jury, noting that Photophobia still has no international sales company attached, called on sellers to “look at this film very quickly and get to work. As exhibitors, we are convinced that this film has a wide audience waiting for it. Our unanimous choice for the Europa Cinemas Label here in Venice is Photophobia.”

As a Europa Cinemas label winner, Photophobia will get distribution support from the network of arthouse cinemas — accounting for more than 1,200 theaters and over 3,000 screens — across Europe.

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