Opening night gala screening. Reception at 17.00 in the IFI Café Bar.

Much praised on the festival circuit and a prize-winner in the Berlin Film Festival’s Generation strand, Kateryna Gornostai’s debut fiction feature uses her background in documentary filmmaking to striking effect in its depiction of the quotidian concerns of Ukrainian teenagers. Sixteen-year-old Masha (Maria Fedorchenko) and her friends Yana (Yana Isaienko) and Senia (Arsenii Markov) are each feeling their way towards adulthood, testing boundaries and making mistakes. In her naturalistic style, Gornostai presents a rounded take through intelligent use of shifting viewpoints, allowing this generation, their faults as well as their humour and strengths, to come across as universally recognisable.

Notes by Kevin Coyne

This film is screening as part of Untold Ukraine. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to Nova Ukraine, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine. For additional donations to the Untold Ukraine project, click here.

The film will be introduced by Larysa Gerasko, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Ireland.