‘Achrome’ Director Maria Ignatenko Resorts to Poetry Amid Unrest, Will Focus on ‘Animal Trials’ Next (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Marta Balaga As Russia-Ukraine tensions rise, dominating international headlines, director Maria Ignatenko talks about the hell of war in her Rotterdam Film Festival title “Achrome.” But her oneiric film, lensed by Anton Gromov, is not exactly a comment on the current situation in Europe. “This particular topic is becoming more and more timely these days, but my film is poetry,” she says.“It’s more related to the world of art and I would like to keep it that way, so I am not ready to make that connection just yet.

However, when we were working, I realized that people might ask me about it. There is a sense of responsibility that comes with making a film like that, so I guess I will be slowly putting myself in the position of being able to answer their questions.” Born in 1986, Ignatenko debuted with 2020’s “In Deep Sleep,” shown at the Berlinale’s Forum.

While still keeping some of “Achrome” dream-like qualities that won over the Rotterdam programmers – with the film celebrating its world premiere in the Tiger Competition – Ignatenko will move closer to reality in her upcoming third feature, “The Animal Trials.” Currently developing the script, she is hoping to shoot in the Altai mountains. “It’s a spectacular place, beautiful and unexplored.

I hope it will allow me to achieve that strange combination of materiality and metaphor,” she says.Focusing on the Nazi occupation of the Baltic states in “Achrome,” as well as two brothers who decide to leave their village and join the Wehrmacht, Ignatenko was loosely inspired by the works of Lithuanian author Rūta Vanagaitė.