Khrustal
Crystal Swan
Crystal Swan may be set in the context of mid-1990s Minsk, but there are restless young women like Velya in every backwater town. Velya is anxious to escape the provincialism of her homeland and seek her fortune as a club DJ in Chicago, the home of house music. She is in the early stages of applying for a U.S. visa but she knows her scrappy employment record could wreck her chances, so she lies about having a job. Though mostly a celebration of youthful individualism, Crystal Swan takes some dark turns. Zhuk still handles these events lightly, maintaining a tone between farce and black comedy. (Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter)
Director's Biography
Darya Zhuk
Darya Zhuk left Minsk, Belarus, at the age of 16 to study in the US. Six years later with a cum laude B.A. degree from Harvard, she started making films first as a video artist, then as a producer and today as a director. She is a proud honors graduate of the Columbia University MFA program in Directing. Her films have been selected for festivals like SXSW, Tarkovsky, Oaxaca, Atlanta and Palm Springs.
Film Selection: Khrustal (Crystal Swan, 2018) - The Real American (2015, short) - What Doesn’t Kill You (2015, short) - Eat the Tourists (2014, short) - Wax (2013, short) - The Air Inside Her (2011, short) - Half-Life (2011, short)
Darya Zhuk left Minsk, Belarus, at the age of 16 to study in the US. Six years later with a cum laude B.A. degree from Harvard, she started making films first as a video artist, then as a producer and today as a director. She is a proud honors graduate of the Columbia University MFA program in Directing. Her films have been selected for festivals like SXSW, Tarkovsky, Oaxaca, Atlanta and Palm Springs.
Film Selection: Khrustal (Crystal Swan, 2018) - The Real American (2015, short) - What Doesn’t Kill You (2015, short) - Eat the Tourists (2014, short) - Wax (2013, short) - The Air Inside Her (2011, short) - Half-Life (2011, short)
YAAAS! Competition 2019
Darya Zhuk
Belarus / Germany / USA / Russia 2018
color
95 minutes
Russian OV with English subtitles
Screenplay Helga Landauer
Cinematography Carolina Costa
Editing Sergey Dmitrenko, Michal Leszczylowski
With Alina Nasibullina, Ivan Mulin, Yury Borisov, Svetlana Anikey, Ilya Kapanets
Producer(s) Valery Dmitrotchenko, Birgit Gernböck, Olga Goister, Debbie Vandermeulen
Production
Turnstyle TV LLC., Demarsh Film, Unfound Content, Fusion Features, Vice Films, Inspiration Films, Crystal Goose
World Sales
Loco Films
Austrian Premiere
World Premiere
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2018
Weltpremiere / World PremiereKarlovy Vary International Film Festival 2018
Premierenstatus / Premiere Status
Austrian Premiere
