Kateryna Gornostai
Writer-director
Ukraine
Kateryna Gornostai was born in Lutsk (1989). She studied biology and later journalism at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 2012-2013, Kateryna studied documentary filmmaking at Marina Razbezhkina and Mikhail Ugarov’s School of Documentary Films and Theatre.
Afterward, she came back home to Kyiv and started a career as a documentary film director.
In 2013, her graduation film BETWEEN US took part in the national competition at the “Molodist” film festival. Later, Kateryna began to work with feature films and hybrid forms. STOP‐ZEMLIA is the director’s full-length feature debut, which was presented in the Generation 14+ competition of Berlinale’21 and won the main Crystal Bear award from the Youth Jury.
She also teaches film directing to the students of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Lives and works in Kyiv.
Project
Antonivka
ArteKino International Prize / 2023 Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Co-production Market
21st Berlinale Co-production Market / 2024 Berlinale
Aurora and Darko are a young couple who decide to start living together. It’s not long after the war ended with Ukraine’s victory. It’s almost summer. She is a veterinarian intern, and he is a musician. They don’t have enough money to rent their own place, so Aurora proposes to go live with her grandfather in his house outside the city. Darko hadn’t wanted to leave the big city, but Aurora insisted.
88 years old grandpa Anton has been blind for more than 15 years. But for all these years he’s managed to live on his own, even during the war, when his village was occupied by the Russians. It’s easy to look after grandpa – he eats twice a day and mostly bread. The only thing that worries Aurora is her grandfather’s old age. She is afraid he might die suddenly. The household routine changes in the autumn. Death becomes the central theme of their lives and sets the record straight.
