The documentary Silent Flood, by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk and produced by Karina Kostyna, alumna of the EWA Network mentoring programme, won the award for Best Cinematography at IDFA.
Silent Flood's premiere took place on November 16, as one of the 12 documentary films in the main competition of IDFA. The international jury awarded the film one of the festival's most prestigious honors, noting both its artistic excellence and unique perspective on Ukraine:
"We were touched by the beauty of the images that enhance the beauty of the land, nature, and its inhabitants. In a country where war has been a reality for more than a century, we encounter a closed religious community that has maintained a pacifist position. Despite being shot by four cinematographers, the film retains a stunning visual coherence — each frame is a separate canvas," highlighted the jury members during the award ceremony.
The film was shot by four cinematographers: Ivan Morarash, Oleksandr Korotun, Viacheslav Tsvetkov, and the director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk himself.
Karina Kostyna said, "After finishing the filming of Pamfir, Dmytro and I decided to create a documentary film. It all started with one sentence that this project is about a religious commune in Western Ukraine. Dmytro had photos of the people from the commune, taken ten years ago after a rafting trip on the Dnister. And now, after five years of work, we have a premiere at IDFA and an award for Best Cinematography. 'Silent Flood' is an incredible contribution from the entire film team, volunteers, our partners, and co-producers. We are extremely grateful to everyone for their support, as without it, we would not have been able to realize this project."
Kostyna was a participant in the 2022-23 EWA Network Mentoring Programme
SILENT FLOOD
The film's plot immerses the viewer in the life of a closed religious community living on the banks of the Dnister River — in a place where nature and history relentlessly test human resilience. Their peaceful world is shattered by regular floods, and later — the full-scale war. In these two elements — natural and human — the film finds parallels, showing how the repetition of disasters shapes the memory and shared identity of the community.
Members of this community live according to traditions: without electricity, respecting nature, baking bread by hand, and spending evenings by candlelight. In the film, the natural floods that periodically attack the shore intertwine with the threat of war: the community supports Ukrainian soldiers by sending their homemade bread to the front — thus, their two worlds, the peaceful and the military, come closer together.
The film has received strong reviews from leading publications. Screen Daily writes that the film is "a lyrical portrait of a religious community in Ukraine, a new perspective on the military conflict that does not shy away from the theme of war but approaches it delicately — as a landscape, through mist, light, and atmosphere." Variety emphasized its visual poetry and "extraordinarily coherent cinematography." IDA noted the "rare purity of observation" and "avoidance of any sensationalism even in depicting the traumatic context."
“In this film, it is primarily about scale. About the scale of time, the scale of landscape. Another scale I want to mention is how our country is struggling right now. If in 2022 the Russians launched 1,100 drones at Ukraine, in 2024 there were already 10,882 drones, and this year — almost 50,000 drones. Most of the territories in eastern Ukraine that you saw on screen are already occupied by the Russians.” Said director Dmytro in his speech.
The Production
The film is produced by the Ukrainian company TABOR in co-production with Elemag Pictures, MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, and in collaboration with ARTE. In partnership with The Other Room, Mellivora, Grace Films, the NGO "Volunteers of Buchach," MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, ARTE Generation Ukraine, IMS, FRF, Deutsche Filmakademie, the Ukrainian Film Academy, in cooperation with Netflix, ESFUF, Documenting Ukraine, Institute for Human Sciences, IWM Vienna, Docudays UA, Goethe-Institut, and German Films. The international promotion of the project is supported by the Ukrainian Institute and Eurimages.