Kateryna Gornostai

Writer-director

Ukraine

The director, writer and editor was born in Lutsk, Ukraine in 1989. She graduated from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, studied biology and then journalism. In 2012-2013, she studied at the School of Documentary Films and Theater of Marina Razbezhkina and made her first documentaries during that period. Then she started working with fiction films and hybrid forms. In 2021, her feature fiction debut STOP-ZEMLIA won the Crystal Bear for Best Film, awarded by the Youth Jury in Generation 14plus at Berlinale. Kateryna is also involved in educational projects dedicated to documentary filmmaking and film editing.

Lives and works in Kyiv.

Project

Antonivka

Aurora and Darko are young and in love. They survived the Russo-Ukrainian war and started a new life together. However, they don’t have enough money to rent a place on their own. He is a musician, and she is a veterinarian intern. They live in a room in Aurora’s grandfather’s house. Grandfather Anton is blind and needs care. At the age of 88, he survived the occupation of his village and waited for the victory of Ukraine. It is easy to take care of the grandfather – he needs two meals a day and bread daily. But Aurora begins to be tormented by the fear that her grandfather will die soon. Gradually, death becomes the central theme of their lives and puts everything in its place.