The Ukrainian-Swedish-Turkish short fiction film by Ukrainian director Maryna Er Gorbach has been included in the programme of the 70th BFI London Film Festival (LFF), which will run from 7 to 18 October, the festival’s website says.
According to the synopsis, the 12-minute Rotation tells the story of a young Ukrainian woman who has swapped civilian life for military service and is now searching for stability in a new reality.
The film was made as part of The Displacement Film Fund (DFF). One of the initiative’s founders and the chair of the selection committee is actor Cate Blanchett, who will also be present at the screening.
At the London festival, the film will be presented alongside works by four other directors selected for the DFF, as part of a screening on 9 October at BFI Southbank.
It is worth noting that Rotation premiered earlier this year at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
About Maryna Er Gorbach:
- Ukrainian director and producer;
- a member of the European Film Academy;
- best known for the feature film Klondike (2022), for which she won the Sundance Film Festival award for Best Director in World Cinema;
- in April, the director received the SEEfest Legacy Award for Achievement at the South East European Film Festival;
- this year, her name became part of the design of a Uniqlo charity T-shirt.
About the BFI London Film Festival:
- one of Europe’s leading film festivals, presented by the British Film Institute;
- founded in 1956; in 2014, Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi’s film The Tribe won the festival’s debut competition;
- in 2018, the festival screened the Icelandic-Ukrainian film Woman at War by Benedikt Erlingsson and Donbass by Serhiy Loznitsa.
About The Displacement Film Fund:
- a pilot project to support and finance short works by directors who have been forcibly displaced, as well as directors with experience of creating authentic stories about the lives and experiences of people who have been forced to relocate;
- launched as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2025, with the participation of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett and partner support;
- the programme awarded five grants of €100,000 for the production of short films;
- alongside the Ukrainian director, the programme included Mo Harawe from Somalia; Mohammad Rasoulof from Iran; Hasan Kattan from Syria; and Shahrbanoo Sadat from Afghanistan;
- the British publication The Guardian rated The Displacement Film Fund film anthology five stars and said it is “at once shocking, funny and mysterious”.