"MARIUPOL. A HUNDRED NIGHTS"
The animated short film "Mariupol. A Hundred Nights" tells the story of a little girl who wakes up from explosions and tries to survive in a burning city in the first days of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To escape, she has to go through the destroyed streets, facing the unknown and trusting destiny. Later, as an elderly woman, that once-young girl will return to Mariupol and remember everything.
The film was initiated by Gogolfest, the biggest multidisciplinary festival of contemporary art in Ukraine, which has been deeply involved in the cultural life of Mariupol over the past 5 years, and was also created as part of a creative collaboration in the "Belief Matters" project between the German team "Ogalala Kreuzberg" and Mariupol-based team "Theatromaniia".


With elements of fiction.
Dedicated to Mariupol and its defenders and honors the memory of all the children who have suffered or died during the russian invasion of Ukraine.
Story: Sofiia Melnyk & Andrii Palatnyi
Director & illustrator: Sofiia Melnyk
Animators: Sofiia Melnyk, Anastasiia Flaileeva
Idea and curator: Andrii Palatnyi
Directors of project «Belief Matters»: Christine Dissmann & Anton Telbizov
Music: Stus: Passerby, song «Wheels» («Kolesa»)
Composer: Volodymyr Rudenko
Vocal & instruments: Sofia Baskakova, Ihor Dymov & Volodymyr Rudenko


Poetry: Vasyl Stus «Кolesa hlukho stukotiat»
Translation of the poem into English: Olexander Fraze-Frazenko
Sound-design: Marius Kirsten, Luis Schöffend
Photo of CCA HOTEL CONTINENTAL: Anatolii Kinashchuk
Photo from the personal diary of Egor Kravtsov: Evgeny Sosnovsky
Subtitles (English): Mariia Yakovenko, Alina Danylova
Coordinator: Viktoriia Fedoriv

SOUNDTRACK

The film's soundtrack is the song "Wheels" ("Kolesa") developed by the DakhTrio and based on the poems "The wheels, the wheels, they hit the road" and "It seems to me that I'm not living..." by Vasyl Stus, a Ukrainian poet who was an active member of the dissident movement of the 60s and 70s and was repressed and died in GULAG. Nowadays, Stus symbolizes the indomitable spirit and preservation of human dignity in Ukraine.

AWARDS

2023 ACADEMY AWARDS SHORT FILMS QUALIFYING

Mariupol. A Hundred Nights was Qualified film of the 96th Academy Awards by The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in the Animated Short Film category.


SCHEDULE
1
KrakowFilmFestival
Poland
1-18.06.23
2
ViennaShorts
Austria
1-6.06.23
3
Docudays UA
Ukraine
2-8.06.23
4
AnimaFest
Croatia
5-10.06.23
5
8
Oslo SFF
Norway
31.08-01.09.23
9
11
13
CinEast
Luxembourg
5-22.10.23
15
16
KIFF Molodist
Ukraine
21-29.10.23
17
PÖFF Shorts
Estonia
7-15.11.23
18
KISFF
Ukraine
7-15.11.23
19
Animateka
Slovenia
27.11-3.12.23
20
Wiz-Art
Ukraine
13-17.12.23
21
Mirada Corta
Mexico
19-21.01.24
22
Tampere International Film Festival
Finland
6-10.03.24
23
Stuttgart International Festival Of Animated Film
Germany
23-28.04.24
24
Anifilm
Czech Republic
7-12.05.24
25
Venezia Shorts
Italy
18-19.05.24
26
Friss Hús International Short Film Festival
Hungary
30.06-06.06.24
27
LA GUARIMBA
Italy
7-12.08.24
28
OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival
Ukraine/Bulgaria
7-12.08.24
29
Toronto International Hollywood Film Festival
Canada
8-15.09.24
30
BLON
Luthania
12-15.09.24
31
Rising of Lusitania AnimaDoc Film Festival
Poland

32
Ottawa International Animation Festival
Canada
25-29.09.24
33
Bolton International Film Festival
UK
2-6.10.24
34
Animest
Romania
4-13.10.24
35
OJAI FILM FESTIVAL
USA
31.10-24.11.24
CONTEXT
Even before Russia started the full-scale war against Ukraine, the ukrainian harbour city of Mariupol was a place, where the latent threat to the country from Russia was part of everyday reality.
Located in Donbass region in the south-east of the country, Mariupol was separated only 20 km from the border to the occupied areas of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
Because of its exposed location as the last purely ukrainian city before the demarcation line, Mariupol always had a special geostrategic importance not only for Ukraine itself, but also for the whole Europe.
THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION INVADED THE TERRITORY OF UKRAINE ON FEBRUARY 24, 2022 AT 5 AM.
MARIUPOL HAS BEEN BOMBED SINCE THE FIRST DAYS OF THE WAR. ABOUT 90% OF THE CITY IS DESTROYED THERE. THIS WAS A PLACE OF HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE.
ON MAY 20, 2022 MARIUPOL HAS BEEN OCCUPIED. NOBODY KNOWS WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN THE CITY NOW...
WE BELIEVE THAT MARIUPOL WILL BE UKRAINE AGAIN!

Process of creation

CREATORS
  • Andrii Palatnyi
    Producer, curator
    Actor, project manager, curator and producer. From 2010 till now an actor and project manager at the Center of Contemporary Arts DAKH (Kyiv, Ukraine). From 2016 till now curator of theatre/performing art and residency program, international relationship at International Multidisciplinary Festival of Contemporary Art “GOGOLFEST”, NGO (Kyiv, Ukraine).
  • Sofiia Melnyk

    Director

    A Ukrainian illustrator and animator. A graduate of the Animationsinstitut at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and has been working as a freelancer since then. She has illustrated several books and music album covers, worked as an animator, animation supervisor and designer on short movies, as well as animated feature films and documentaries for TV and cinema. She is working with theatre, creating live visualisation for plays and audio-visual performances.
Contacts
cca.dakh@gmail.com
fca.gogolfest@gmail.com
sofiia.o.melnyk@gmail.com