MOEDER
2023 · 20m · Ukraine
Directed by Salomon Ligthelm
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
A Ukrainian miner on the Russia-Ukraine border discovers a ringing phone in his backyard and, upon answering, is drawn into a tragic revelation about the human cost of the conflict. Shot on 35mm months before Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A ringing phone dug up from a Ukrainian miner's backyard as the entry point into a war film — I'd have dismissed it as precious if it weren't shot on 35mm in a country weeks from invasion, which makes the whole thing feel like it was smuggled out.
Ligthelm shot in Ukraine on 35mm months before the invasion, drawing on the MH17 phone phenomenon — a film whose making is now inseparable from its meaning. Twenty minutes of quiet devastation in the Son of Saul tradition.
Shot on 3-perf 35mm 4:3 in Ukraine months before the 2022 invasion, drawn from real MH17 phantom-phone phenomenon — twenty minutes, headphones requested. The historical proximity gives it documentary weight without docu form.
Festivals
- Tirana International Film Festival 2023, Best New World
- Venice Shorts 2023, Best Narrative Film
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2024
- Manchester Film Festival 2024, Best Short Film
- Leeds International Film Festival 2024