The film “Crystal Swan” directed by Darya Zhuk did not make the short list of the Oscars in the category “Best Foreign Film.” It was the first Belarusian film nominated for the Oscar award.
Films from Russia and Ukraine also did not make the short list – “Sobibor” by Konstantin Khabensky and “Donbass” by Sergey Loznitsa.
As a result, 9 films were included in the shortlist:
- “Cold War”, Poland
- “Ayka”, Kazakhstan
- Roma, Mexico
- “Never Look Away”, Germany
- “Birds of Passage”, Columbia
- “The Guilty”, Denmark
- Shoplifters, Japan
- Capernaum, Lebanon
- “Burning”, South Korea
The Belarusian movie “Crystal Swan” shows Belarus in the 1990s. A young DJ girl wants to go to America, but makes a mistake in her visa application. Now she has to spend a week in a small factory town, so as not to lose her chance to fulfill her “American dream”. The film shows a panorama of the life in the 90s: youth underground parties, small markets, young people’s dreams of emigration and the life in a provincial town.
The filming took place entirely in Belarus. The movie was a joint production of film companies from Belarus, USA, Germany and Russia. An international film crew worked on the film. The main characters were played by Russian actors Alina Nasibulina and Ivan Mulin, as well as the actress of the Yanka Kupala Theater Svyatlana Anikei.
