Ukrainian film about life after occupation one step closer to Oscar
The Ukrainian short film “In Her Arms” continues its international festival journey. After winning at the Seville International Film Festival and successful screenings in Portugal and Spain, the film was selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) program – one of the oldest, largest and most prestigious film festivals in Australia, which annually presents the most notable auteur films to a global audience.
“In Her Arms” became the only Ukrainian film presented in this year’s festival program. In addition to international recognition, participation in MIFF opens up the opportunity for the film to compete for Oscar-qualifying status: if it wins in the competition program, the film will be included in the Oscar longlist in the short film category.
For the film, participation in the festival will be its Australian premiere and another international platform where the Ukrainian story of life after the Russian occupation will be heard by viewers from the other side of the world.
“In Her Arms” tells the story of a couple, Georgy and Yaryna, who return to their home after the de-occupation. In the house where the Russian military lived, they find an abandoned stretcher. While the characters try to return to their usual lives, the war does not recede – it continues to exist nearby, penetrating the space of the home and everyday life. Reality gradually acquires surreal features, and the stretcher becomes a symbol of the evil that the occupiers leave behind even when they are no longer there.
“We understood that we could not wait for ideal conditions or stable financing. This story needed to be told now, at a time when it hurts and resonates. The victory in Seville is proof for us that it is important to continue to hear the Ukrainian voice on international screens,” said producer Zlata Yefimenko.
According to director Roman Volosevych, the film does not seek to show the war as a spectacular drama – on the contrary, it explores its least noticeable consequences.
“The story focuses not on frontline events, but on the fragile, often invisible process of returning home after occupation — on an attempt to assemble everyday life from the fragments of the “former life,” when the war has already taken root in personal space. It was important to me not to restore war as spectacle, but to show civilian experience. The absence of faces and eyes in the frame allows the viewer to try on this experience for themselves and feel that nothing will ever be the same again,” says the director.
The image of the stretch marks at the heart of the film was born from a real story that one of the screenwriters, Igor Zaitsev, heard. He was struck by a report from de-occupied Bucha, where Russian soldiers left a grenade inside a piano in the home of a local family. It was this image that became the starting point for the story about the mark that war leaves even after the occupiers retreat.
The film was created by the Ukrainian company EF PICTURES with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the State Film Agency of Ukraine.
Creative team :
- The director is Roman Volosevich.
- Producer — Zlata Efimenko.
- Screenwriters — Roman Volosevych, Igor Zaitsev.
- Director of photography is Dmytro Zaglinsky.
- The production designer is Vassa Bagalika.
- Composer — Nazar Slobodianyk.
Cast : Dasha Legeyda, Akmal Gurezov, Volodymyr Zakharchenko, Oleksandr Ivanov, Dmytro Konyk, Valery Latko.
“In Her Arms” will be presented at the Melbourne International Film Festival , which will take place in Melbourne from August 6 to 23.
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