A special screening of the Ukrainian documentary "Fragments of Ice" will take place in Lviv.

A special screening of the Ukrainian documentary film "Fragments of Ice" took place in Lviv. Through the lens of her own family history, director Maria Stoyanova reinterprets the historical events surrounding Ukraine's independence restoration. The best Ukrainian documentary film from DOCUDAYS UA will be released in Ukrainian cinemas on January 9, 2025. On that day, a special screening will be held in Lviv, accompanied by a lecture from film critic Stanislav Tarasenko.

The film offers a delicate, hypnotic journey through the video archives of the Ukrainian ice dance ensemble, "Ice Ballet," which toured abroad in the 1980s and 1990s. Using these recorded tapes, the director's daughter reconstructs a remarkable coming-of-age story: her own, her family’s, and that of society in Ukraine.

The film is edited from the personal archives of director Maria Stoyanova’s family, marking her feature-length debut. The cinematographer of the film is her father, Mykhailo Stoyanov.

The filmmakers invite viewers to bring their parents to the cinema for the screening. This film serves as a unique dialogue between generations, illustrating life and daily existence at the turning points of eras through the story of one family's life, reexamining the collapse of the USSR. By presenting archival footage from a personal, human perspective, the film challenges the manipulated societal perception of the USSR's dissolution and demonstrates how fiercely Ukrainians at that time yearned for freedom.

“I remember thinking that we absolutely needed to make a film from our family’s archival videos to somehow comprehend how much we have all changed since then and how our perceptions have shifted. The work on the film took a long time, but it remained important to me that the film, through the story of our family, tells about the maturation of our society,” comments director Maria Stoyanova on her vision.

Maria Stoyanova is a graduate of the film program by renowned Ukrainian documentarian Serhiy Bukovskyi. Her previous short film ("Forest, Forest") participated in national short film competitions at the Molodist, DOCUDAYS UA, and Mykolaichuk OPEN film festivals. The director’s works have also been showcased abroad at international film festivals such as Ji.hlava, DOK Leipzig, and FIDMarseille.

The film is dedicated to the memory of Viktor Onysko. He was the first editor of the film but did not manage to complete the work on it due to the full-scale invasion. Viktor joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and tragically died on December 30, 2022, while defending Ukraine. The editing of the film was taken over by Marina Maikovska ("We Will Not Fade"). The film’s producers, Alina Horlova (also a documentary filmmaker known for the film "This Rain Will Never End") and Maksym Nakonechnyi (also known for directing the film "The Butterfly Vision"), share that at one point, work on the film halted due to the invasion, but this tragic event allowed the team and the director to reflect even more deeply on the film's key messages.

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The world premiere of "Fragments of Ice" took place within the international competition of feature films at Visions du Réel 2024 in Switzerland. The film received several major awards at the 21st International Documentary Film Festival on Human Rights DOCUDAYS UA — the Grand Prize in the DOCU/UKRAINE competition, a Special Mention in the DOCU/WORLD competition, the Grand Prize of the student jury, and an award from the Critics' Union of Ukraine jury.

The film will be in theaters in Lviv until January 15.