Kyrylo Zemlianyi’s film «Unavailable» and Yelyzaveta Toptyhina’s «Curfew» have been selected for the programmes of the 42nd INTERFILM Festival (the International Short Film Festival in Berlin), which will run from 11 to 15 November. This is stated on the festival’s website.
Zemlianyi’s «Unavailable» (Unavailable) will be screened as part of the International Competition programme.
According to the synopsis, the 20-minute fiction film follows a young man named Serhii who volunteers and loses contact with his mother, who remains in territory occupied by Russia. When his mother finally decides to evacuate, he learns that a humanitarian convoy from his home town was destroyed during a bombing.
The cast includes Vladyslav Makariuk, Ostap Orest Pasichnyk, Kostiantyn Shamin, Yurii Yevsiukov, Oksana Tsymbal and others.
The film is a co-production between Ukraine, France, Belgium, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. The Ukrainian producers are Inna Lastochkina and Anna Demianenko.
In 2025, the film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in the Orizzonti Short Films competition programme. It was also shown at a number of other festivals, including the International Short Film Festival in Clermont-Ferrand (France) and the Kyiv International Film Festival «Molodist», where it received a Special Mention from the jury.
Toptyhina’s «Curfew» (Curfew) will be presented as part of the European Short Film Audience Award programme (the European Short Film Audience Award).
According to the synopsis, the Ukrainian fiction film tells the story of a young photographer who miscalculates the timing during an expedition and can no longer hitch a lift back into the city. At a bus stop she meets a young man celebrating his birthday. The strangers are forced to wait out the night together in a roadside hotel, as curfew is approaching.
The film stars Oleksandra Barstok, Pavel Lohvyn, Iryna Kravchenko, Roman Sukhetskyi and Vlad Romanshchak. Anastasiia Zakhilko served as executive producer.
In 2025, the film had its international premiere at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival. That same year, «Curfew» also won the Audience Award at the Lviv International Film Festival Wiz-Art.
About Kyrylo Zemlianyi:
- Ukrainian director and screenwriter;
- originally from Tokmak (Zaporizhzhia region);
- his other works include the short films «Mute» (2019), «Architecton» (2021) and «Overwrite» (2022).
About Yelyzaveta Toptyhina:
- Ukrainian director, screenwriter and visual artist;
- originally from Odesa region;
- she works on fiction and hybrid projects, and creates commercial and music videos. In her work, she aims to explore emotional connections between characters, combining visual language with warm irony. She addresses themes of memory, intimacy and transformation against the backdrop of war;
- in 2024, she shot the short film «Rybo».
About INTERFILM Festival:
- the oldest and largest short film festival in Berlin, founded in 1982;
- an Academy Awards-qualifying festival;
- alongside the INTERFILM Festival, it runs its sister international children’s and youth short film festival KUKI.