Official US Trailer for Ukrainian Doc ‘The Earth is Blue as an Orange’
by Alex Billington
April 29, 2022
Source: YouTube
“A remarkable documentary about this family’s resilience and cinema’s ability to be a means of escape.” Film Movement has revealed an official US trailer for a documentary film titled The Earth is Blue as an Orange, made by the Ukrainian filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk. This was shot and made entirely before the current war in Ukraine, focusing on one family living in Eastern Ukraine in a region that was already occupied a few years earlier. Krasnohorivka: a town on the front lines. A single mother Anna and her four children are managing to keep their home as a safe haven, full of life and full of light. Every member of the family has a passion for cinema, it feels natural for them to shoot a film during this time. The creative process questions what kind of impact cinema might have during times of disaster, and how to picture war through a camera. For Anna and the children, transforming trauma into a work of art is the ultimate way to stay human. This premiered at Sundance 2020 and played at Hot Docs, Berlinale, MoMA, and lots of fests. It’s worth a watch.
Here’s the US trailer (+ poster) for Iryna Tsilyk’s doc The Earth is Blue as an Orange, from YouTube:
To cope with the daily trauma of living in a war-zone, Anna and her children make a film together about their life in the most surreal surroundings in war-torn Eastern Ukraine. Winner of the Directing Award for World Cinema Doc at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, The Earth is Blue as an Orange stands not only as a remarkable document of the Ukrainian War through the lens – literally – of this family’s creative process, but as an optimistic testament to the power of art and beauty in the face of destruction. The Earth is Blue as an Orange is directed by Ukrainian poet / filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk, making her second feature after the other doc Invisible Battalion previously, as well as a few short films. Produced by Anna Kapustina and Giedre Zickyte. This initially premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival a few years back, and it also played at Berlinale. Film Movement will debut The Earth is Blue as an Orange in select US theaters starting on April 22nd, 2022 – it’s available to rent in virtual cinemas, too. For more info, visit the official website.
