Cinema in the Shadow of Empire: VOLCANO (2018)
About the Film
Directed by Roman Bondarchuk
Not Rated
106 minutes
A series of odd coincidences has left Lukas, an interpreter for an OSCE military checkpoint inspection tour, stranded near a small southern Ukrainian steppe town. With nowhere to turn, this city boy finds shelter at the home of a colorful local named Vova. With Vova as his guide, Lukas is confronted by a universe beyond his imagination, one in which life seems utterly detached from any identifiable structure. Fascinated by his host and his host's daughter Marushka, with whom he is rapidly falling in love, Lukas’s contempt for provincial life slowly melts away and sets him on a quest for a happiness he had never known could exist.
About the Director
Roman Bondarchuk is a graduate of the Karpenko-Kary Theater, Film and Television University. His graduation film, Taxi Driver, won the White Elephant prize from the Russian Film Critics’ Guild and many other awards. Bondarchuk co-directed Euromaidan. Rough Cut, a film about the events on Maidan Square, and directed his first feature-length documentary, Ukrainian Sheriffs in 2015. It won a Special Jury Award at IDFA and was selected as the Ukrainian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Bondarchuk is also the artistic director of Docudays UA: International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in Kyiv.
Tickets
Film screenings are free, but tickets are required. Contact the DeBartolo Performing Arts ticket office at 574-631-2800 or order tickets online.
Spring 2023: Cinema in the Shadow of Empire
March 29: Stop-Zemlia, directed by Kateryna Gornostai (2021)
From a debutant Ukrainian director Kateryna Gornostai, a deeply personal coming-of-age story about self-discovery and the patience it requires.
April 5: Reflection, directed by Valentyn Vasyanovych (2021)
Ukrainian surgeon tries to find purpose in life after his capture and release by the Russian military forces in Eastern Ukraine.
April 12: Volcano, directed by Roman Bondarchuk (2018)
Lukas, an interpreter for a military mission, gets lost near a remote Ukrainian village and stumbles from simple misadventure into the weirdest road trip of his life.
April 19: Bad Roads, directed by Natalia Vorozhbit (2020)
Four stories of love, hate, trust, betrayal and violation of personal borders projected against the background of the violation of national borders.
April 28: Klondike, written and directed by Maryna Er Gorbach (2022)
A Ukrainian family living on the border of Russia and Ukraine during the start of the 2014 Donbas war find themselves at the center of an international catastrophe of flight MH17.
Originally published at nanovic.nd.edu.