Atlantis

The film sets itself in a near future: in eastern Ukraine the war is over but what remains is an unrecognisable country. The soil is poisoned, the water is dirty, and the steelworks is closing. Sergiy, a former soldier, lives with post-traumatic stress and does not know what to do. He joins a volunteer team recovering and identifying bodies. There he meets Katya. Valentyn Vasyanovych shot and edited the film himself. The narrative consists entirely of long static takes; the camera never moves and scenes are not cut until they end. The method places the viewer opposite the event rather than inside it. The film won best film in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and was submitted as Ukraine's Oscar entry. It was made before the invasion of 2022, as a film imagining the aftermath of a war. Who it's for: Viewers who like Ukrainian cinema, post-war narratives, and formal cinema built on long takes. Who it's not for: The pace is very slow and some scenes show the recovery of bodies directly. The narrative also barely advances.