Anastasiia Solonevych

Writer-director

Ukraine

Anastasiia Solonevych is a director from Kyiv, Ukraine. She graduated from the Film and Television Directing program at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 2021.
Her debut short film, AS IT WAS (co-directed with Damian Kocur), was Palme d’Or nominated at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.
In 2022, her music video “Kalyna” won Best Music Video at the International Prague Film Festival. Since 2017, Anastasiia has been actively involved in the film industry, lending her expertise as a 1st Assistant Director and contributing to various roles in commercials, feature films, and TV series.
Anastasiia Solonevych focuses on delving into the lives of ordinary people in unique settings, blending fiction and nonfiction with a stylistic touch. Embracing simplicity, she communicates thoughts in straightforward language, values minimalism in cinematography, and emphasizes genuine moments with clarity and sincerity.

Project

30 days of summer

Summer 2022, Germany. Anna, a Ukrainian refugee, heads to work as a translator at military training sessions for Ukrainian soldiers. Her younger step-sister Valeriia, whom Anna hasn’t seen since childhood, participates in these exercises. Valeriia is set to deploy to the front after the training, and this might be the sisters’ last chance to reunite.

Among instructors, soldiers, military equipment, and lessons in tactical medicine, Anna and Valeriia cautiously explore each other. They will have to overcome their differences, rebuild family ties, and look at their past with fresh eyes.

The training ground, where the sisters meet, becomes a buffer zone between Anna’s reality of « peaceful life » and Valeriia’s military world. Filled with hope and doubts, it’s their brief shared summer.