Valentyn Vasyanovych enters the main Competition of the 78th Biennale di Venezia with Reflection, a cinematic introspection on the complex results of war.
The 78th Venice International Film Festival, organised by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Alberto Barbera, is coming to an end after offering us an interesting lineup spanning from Pedro Almodóvar’s Madres Paralelas, presented at the festival’s opening night, to the variety of works showcased in the Orizzonti Competition. Among our highlights of the festivals are Pilgrims, Full Time, 107 Mothers, and El Gran Movimiento. To wrap up our coverage of #Venezia78, we have discovered Reflection by Valentyn Vasyanovych, playing in the festival’s main competition.
Writer, director, cinematographer, and editor, Valentyn Vasyanovych, a jack of all trades continues to showcase his cinematic chops for his latest Venice competition entry, Reflection. After winning the top prize in the Orizzonti section in 2019 for his PTSD road movie, Atlantis, it was a welcoming surprise to see his latest film in the main competition, steering more opportunities on the grand scale. Using the backdrop of the Ukrainian-Russian war, his film center around the brutality and results that come from war. Not necessarily focusing on the action, but the emotional outcomings of the war, Reflection, a cinematic standout in visual aesthetics, sets the unflinching terror and emotional tenderness of the war.
Beginning with a paintball gunfight filled with a group of teens including a teenage girl, Polina, we meet Andriy and Olha, the mother and guardian of Polina, and enters Serhiy, the father of Polina. Serhiy, a surgeon, and Andriy, a soldier on the front, converse about the current struggles of the war. It’s evident that he’s not over the divorce and has an internal response of melancholy that exudes from his physical performance. It’s November 2014, the first day of the Ukraine-Russia war, and the life of Serhiy is followed. He is a surgeon for the Ukrainian army and traveling the border of Ukraine and Russian carrying a wounded body as he is navigating the driver, but suddenly, a lost connection loses their GPS signal. Captured by the Russian army, he is kidnapped and witnesses the torture of other Ukrainian soldiers. He crosses path with Andriy as victims and through both of their experiences, Serhiy witnesses a brutal exchange that changes his life forever.
In Vasyanovych’s statement, he was inspired to create this story by his real-life experience when a bird crashed into his apartment window due to it flying and crashing because it saw the reflection of the sky. The poignancy behind that experience is drawn out over 125 minutes. Not only through a moment of that experience, but shown through a broken family, after life, and beliefs. The long takes and centered cinematography with exceptional landscape backgrounds are becoming, or is Vasyanovych’s sensibilities. Just by watching Reflection, you can tell that Vasyanovych is a confident filmmaker and knows exactly what he wants.
Reflection is a step forward in Vasyanovych’s career but didn’t have that breath taking scene such as the thermal-camera moment in Atlantis. He is clearly a student of cinema and introduces a unique sensibility representing his own experience in the melancholic and precision of nature. In Reflection, the non-sense behind the war result in complex situations for these victims in these situations. To reflect is not only to mirror the image of a person, but to be in such a deep state of thought, is what Reflection truly does for Serhiy’s tragic life.
