The first trailer for Silent Flood, the new documentary by Ukrainian filmmaker Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, offers a glimpse into a secluded religious community in western Ukraine whose fragile harmony with nature is disrupted by both environmental disasters and the shadow of war.
The 90-minute feature world-premiered in the International Competition at IDFA last year and will soon be screened in the World Showcase of Toronto’s Hot Docs (April 23-May 3). The pic was presented at prestigious gatherings such as Trieste, Göteborg, CPH:DOX, and One World Prague.
Set along a river canyon between the Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, Silent Flood observes a pacifist community that has chosen a quiet, isolated existence in a landscape marked by the passing front lines of both World War I and World War II. Their peaceful routines, however, are repeatedly shaken by the destructive force of floods—and eventually by the reverberations of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In the film, Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk approaches the village as both an observer and a returning visitor. The director explains that his fascination with the location dates back to his time practising river rafting in the region, when he first encountered the settlement along the banks of the Dniester River. “I have always been fascinated by the invisible, almost intangible connections between a person — or even a group of people — and their interaction with the environment,” he says. “I’m naturally drawn to enclosed, secluded places, and it’s there that I often meet people I want to get closer to.”
For the filmmaker, best known for his award-winning feature debut Pamfir, the project evolved into what he describes as a reflection on historical cycles and collective memory. “Silent Flood is a fresco-like observation of the cyclical repetition of war, echoing the floods that wash over us time and again,” he notes. “The community leads a closed life, sheltered from the outside world—but both floods and war are forces too powerful to keep out.”
Silent Flood is produced by Karina Kostyna and Eugene Rachkovsky for Ukraine’s Tabor, with Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer coproducing for Germany’s Elemag Pictures. The documentary was made in coproduction with MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in collaboration with ARTE and received backing from a range of international partners including MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Eurimages and the Ukrainian Film Academy. Filmotor is handling world rights.
