HOLY GOD

HOLY GOD - 2016 25'

In de film verwerkt de maakster als jonge vrouw haar traumatische tienerjaren met oma en moeder eerst in Grozny tijdens de gruwelijke wrede Tchetjeense oorlog en dan als ontheemde vluchteling aan de zelfkant van Moskou. This film is a reckoning by the young woman director with her traumatic teenager years with grandma and mother first in Grozny during the ghastly atrocious Chechen war and than as a homeless refugee on the seamy wild side of Moscow.

Vladlena Sandu

was born in her father's homeland of Ukraine, Crimea in 1982. After her parents divorced, she moved to her mother's hometown of Grozny in the Chechen Republic. She spent six years at war as a child and teenager. In 1998 she immigrated to mainland Russia and received the status of an internally displaced person. In 2016 she graduated from the VGIK, with a short documentary HOLY GOD. The film had received production funds from the Russian Ministry Of Culture but failed to pass censorship laws. HOLY GOD was awarded at multiple national and international film festivals, including Apricot Tree IDFF and ZagrebDox 2017. The film premiered at Leipzig DOK 2016 and was in competition at Rotterdam 2017.