A relationship tested by transition and war has drawn international attention, while critics praise the filmmakers’ complex examination of identity, masculinity and survival.
The film “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming” by Isabelle Stever and Anna Melikova received the youth jury award “The Environment Is Quality of Life” at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. The Ukrainian Film Academy announced the award.
The film is featured in the main competition of the Festival del film Locarno. Its protagonists are a young Ukrainian queer couple, Olya and Oleg. Their relationship undergoes difficult changes, as one partner’s gender transition coincides with the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The camera observes how the boundaries of masculinity and femininity narrow under the pressure of war, and how two people try to hold on to each other and to themselves. What does it mean to be a man in a country fighting for its own survival?
– film scholars
What the film “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming” is about
The screenplay is based on real-life stories of the screenwriter’s friends. The filmmakers explore how war affects self-identity, intimacy, and perceptions of masculinity and femininity.
The Guardian gave the work five out of five stars. The publication called the film exceptionally well-shot and a complex statement on the crisis of a belief system.
The film was produced by Nataliia Libet and Olha Bregman of 2Brave Productions. They worked on the project together with Tom Tykwer’s company X-Filme.
Locarno Film Festival
The Festival del film Locarno took place in Switzerland from August 5 to 15. The film forum is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious festivals, and its main competition brings together auteur films from different countries.
The program of the 79th Locarno Film Festival also featured the world premiere of “Demons,” a Ukrainian-Polish film by Natalka Vorozhbyt. In this film, Ruslana Pysanka played her final role.