~ Underwater
Trailer
Stills and concept images
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Stills and concept images
Info
documentary essay
in post-production
release ~ 2024
duration: ~ 120
director: Oksana Kazmina ︎︎︎
protagonists:
AntiiGonna ︎
Ksenia Platanova ︎
Masha Pronina ︎
music:
Lyudska Podoba ︎
documentary essay
in post-production
release ~ 2024
duration: ~ 120
director: Oksana Kazmina ︎︎︎
protagonists:
AntiiGonna ︎
Ksenia Platanova ︎
Masha Pronina ︎
music:
Lyudska Podoba ︎
Logline
A cinematic journey through the worlds, real and imaginary, past and present, of four Ukrainian artists who come together to live their story. At times, the story follows the safe paths of collective narratives, but often it ventures into the dark waters of the unspeakable self. Yet in the end, we continue to walk, together, alive.
Synopsis
One day, a woman came to a crossroads. There were no road signs so she stopped in confusion. “Where do you need to go?” asked another woman, approaching the crossroads. “I have to bury my father,” said a third woman, arriving then. “Let’s bury the fathers right on this intersection,” said the fourth woman. It was getting dark already. The women started to dance while waiting for the stars to come out. As night fell and the stars shone brightly, they began to talk.
Underwater invites you for a walk through the physical and metaphorical backyards of Ukraine. Oksana, the director, walks with her friends AntiiGonna, Ksenia and Masha through industrial landscapes tangled with lush greenery, slowly sinking into the dark waters of their past.
AntiiGonna used to live between her father’s home in Odesa, her mother’s flat in Vinnytsia, and nightclubs in Kyiv. She creates experimental videos which she calls ‘horror porn’ – a puzzling mixture art curators, film programmers and viewers never know quite how to handle, yet which fascinates like the first glimpse of one’s face in an alien mirror.
Kseniya used to live in Zaporizhia, an industrial city in the south-east of Ukraine. She works as a hairdresser to provide for her two daughters and elderly mother, and in her free time creates mutant dolls from found objects, paper and food. These dolls tell stories Ksenia herself is not able to speak about.
Masha fled from hometown of Donetsk when the war broke out in 2014, and then her second home – Mariupol – in 2022. She cuts up tabloid magazines – religious, pornographic, cookery, dating – and reshapes them through collage practice into a reality where queer Jesus preaching to kittens is a real possibility .
Through conversations with her friends and herself, Oksana reveals connections between the four of them and weaves a collective narrative about the many wars that women have to fight throughout their lives.
Underwater plunges into the personal and social darkness of our past. Just as swimmers in deep water can look up to see light glimmering above them, so do we, the characters and creators of the film, draw from mutual support, hope, love. Set against the darkness of the war, this light seems achingly bright.
A cinematic journey through the worlds, real and imaginary, past and present, of four Ukrainian artists who come together to live their story. At times, the story follows the safe paths of collective narratives, but often it ventures into the dark waters of the unspeakable self. Yet in the end, we continue to walk, together, alive.
Synopsis
One day, a woman came to a crossroads. There were no road signs so she stopped in confusion. “Where do you need to go?” asked another woman, approaching the crossroads. “I have to bury my father,” said a third woman, arriving then. “Let’s bury the fathers right on this intersection,” said the fourth woman. It was getting dark already. The women started to dance while waiting for the stars to come out. As night fell and the stars shone brightly, they began to talk.
Underwater invites you for a walk through the physical and metaphorical backyards of Ukraine. Oksana, the director, walks with her friends AntiiGonna, Ksenia and Masha through industrial landscapes tangled with lush greenery, slowly sinking into the dark waters of their past.
AntiiGonna used to live between her father’s home in Odesa, her mother’s flat in Vinnytsia, and nightclubs in Kyiv. She creates experimental videos which she calls ‘horror porn’ – a puzzling mixture art curators, film programmers and viewers never know quite how to handle, yet which fascinates like the first glimpse of one’s face in an alien mirror.
Kseniya used to live in Zaporizhia, an industrial city in the south-east of Ukraine. She works as a hairdresser to provide for her two daughters and elderly mother, and in her free time creates mutant dolls from found objects, paper and food. These dolls tell stories Ksenia herself is not able to speak about.
Masha fled from hometown of Donetsk when the war broke out in 2014, and then her second home – Mariupol – in 2022. She cuts up tabloid magazines – religious, pornographic, cookery, dating – and reshapes them through collage practice into a reality where queer Jesus preaching to kittens is a real possibility .
Through conversations with her friends and herself, Oksana reveals connections between the four of them and weaves a collective narrative about the many wars that women have to fight throughout their lives.
Underwater plunges into the personal and social darkness of our past. Just as swimmers in deep water can look up to see light glimmering above them, so do we, the characters and creators of the film, draw from mutual support, hope, love. Set against the darkness of the war, this light seems achingly bright.
