Khrustal
Crystal Swan
In den 1990er Jahren, kurz nach Ende der Sowjetunion, sucht die junge Velya einen Weg, ihre Heimat Belarus und die dortige Armut hinter sich zu lassen. Ihre Leidenschaft ist die gerade erst aufkommende House-Musik. Abends arbeitet sie als DJ, mit dem Traum, in den USA durchzustarten. Dafür braucht sie jedoch ein Visum. Der Film zeigt den komplizierten Weg, diesem Ziel näher zu kommen. Die atemberaubende Performance der Hauptdarstellerin macht den Film zu etwas Besonderem. Ich kann mich gut in sie hineinversetzen: wild, neugierig und ein wenig verrückt, eben so wie viele Jugendliche. (Nora Einwaller, YAAAS! Young Programmer 2019)
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 / Deutschland / USA / Russland 2018
color
95 Minuten
Russisch OmeU
Drehbuch Helga Landauer
Kamera Carolina Costa
Schnitt Sergey Dmitrenko, Michal Leszczylowski
Mit Alina Nasibullina, Ivan Mulin, Yury Borisov, Svetlana Anikey, Ilya Kapanets
Produzent*innen Valery Dmitrotchenko, Birgit Gernböck, Olga Goister, Debbie Vandermeulen
Produktion
Turnstyle TV LLC., Demarsh Film, Unfound Content, Fusion Features, Vice Films, Inspiration Films, Crystal Goose
Weltvertrieb
Loco Films
Österreichpremiere
Weltpremiere
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2018
Weltpremiere / World PremiereKarlovy Vary International Film Festival 2018
Premierenstatus / Premiere Status
Austrian Premiere