At the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), running from 12 to 22 November, the Dutch premiere of Ukrainian director Olha Chernykh’s film The Illusion of a Quiet Night will take place in the non-competitive Best of Fests section. This is reported on the festival’s website.
Best of Fests aims to present the year’s most notable documentary films from festivals around the world. In total, more than 50 films will be screened as part of the section.
According to the description, the 70-minute The Illusion of a Quiet Night shows that “normal” life in Ukraine is a fiction—especially at night, when Russia attacks Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles. Without dialogue, the film offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of life in Ukraine over the course of a single night. The film captured hundreds of Ukrainians’ lives across the country on a July night in 2025. The material included was shot by 40 camera operators and hundreds of citizens. The project set out to bear witness to how life continues despite the war, demonstrating the resilience of a nation living with uncertainty.
The project was created by the company Tabor on commission from Suspilne Broadcasting. The producer was Dariya Zakharova.
As a reminder, in September, at the 18th International Documentary Film Festival DMZ (DMZ Docs), the Asian premiere of The Illusion of a Quiet Night took place, and in April the film received a special mention at the 57th International Film Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon (Switzerland) in the Burning Lights section.
About Olha Chernykh:
- Ukrainian director;
- her debut film A Photo for Memory opened IDFA in 2023 and won the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival in the Documentary Films category in 2024.
About the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam:
- the world’s largest documentary film festival, held annually since 1988;
- aims to promote creative documentary films and present them to a wide audience;
- in 2025, the Ukrainian film Silent Flood by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk won an award for Best Cinematography at the festival.