Credits

Regie

Maria Stoianova

Genre

Documentary

Speelduur

95 minutes

Land

Ukraine, Norway

Taal

Ukranian, Russian, English

Ondertiteling

English

Storyline

Fragments of Ice as seen by Ukrainian critic Daria Badior:

Beginning as a personal archive project in 2018, the film transformed into a political statement about the transition period of the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. Maria’s parents were dancers in the popular Soviet-Ukrainian Ballet on ice show, touring worldwide. Being abroad, Maria’s dad brought a VHS-camera with him, documenting his journeys and the reality beyond the Soviet Union. Revisiting the tapes, the director reflects on the life in the Soviet Union and its collapse in 1991, and the long-lasting aftermath of colonizing politics of the USSR and Russia.

The distance between the man with a VHS camera and his home, caught on the cusp of an era shift—Cold War vs. post-Cold War, suffocating communism vs. hybrid wild capitalism—provides additional fuel for questioning the reality we all are living in. Are we still stuck in the radical transition which began in the late 20th century? Has the 21st century even began? Was there an end of the Cold War and the deep separation between “the West” and “the East” of Europe? Fragments of Ice invites us to join the filmmaker as she contemplate on these issues.

The film is dedicated to the memory of Victor Onysko, a Ukrainian film editor whose decision to go away from home in 2022 and to join the Ukrainian army to defend the country, the family, the world, was one of many decisions made by Ukrainian men and women after the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion. Victor, who started to edit the Fragments, died on the frontline in December 2022.