CRITICAL CONDITION
by Mila Zhluktenko

24min | Germany | 2025

Inspired by the events around the life of Lev Rebet, Ukrainian author and editor-in-chief of the Munich-based exile newspaper „Ukrainian Independist“, “Critical Condition” portrays the fates of the Ukrainian diaspora in the past and present.

​Year of production 2025
Length 24'
Country Germany
Shooting Format 16mm
Aspect Ratio 1:1,37
Dialogue Ukrainian, Russian

Director ​Mila Zhluktenko
Producer Michael Kalb
Production Company Michael Kalb Film Production
Co-Production Company Bayerischer Rundfunk, in cooperation with Arte and University of Television and Film Munich
Funded by FilmFernsehFonds Bayern
Writer Mila Zhluktenko​
Cinematographer Tobias Blickle
Editors Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko
Production Designer Leonie Lindner
Costume Designer Kristina Kilian
Sound Designer Gerhard Auer, Philip Hutter
Music Marja Burchard
Makeup and Hair Alyssia Achille
Production Sound Mixer Philip Hutter
Cast Ihor Shulha, Vita Smachelyuk, Sebastian Anton, Lisa Moskalenko, Volodymyr Melnyk, Yevgen Bondarskyy, Oleksandr Pozharskyi, Valeriia Berezovska, Valeriia Kuzmenko

Festival selections
Semaine de la Critique - Cannes 2025, France - World Premiere
Nouvelles Vagues - Biarritz Film Festival 2025, France
​Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival 2025, Portugal
​Sarajevo Film Festival 2025, ​Bosnia and Herzegovina
​Festival Silhouette 2025, France
Kyiv International Short Film Festival 2025, Ukraine
Wiz-Art - ​Lviv International Film Festival 2025, Ukraine
War on Screen - Festival International de Cinéma 2025, France
Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin 2025, Germany - Special Mention
BOO International Film Festival 2025, Czech Republic
​​Stockholm International Film Festival 2025, Sweden
​Festival of Future Storytellers 2025, Germany - Best Film Award
Poitiers Film Festival 2025, France
​Batumi International Art-House Film Festival 2025, Georgia
​Vilnius Short Film Festival 2026, Lithuania 
​International Short Film Week Regensburg 2026, Germany
​Landshut Short Film Festival 2026, Germany
​​KINO Athens - Independent Film Festival of Athens​ 2026, Greece
​Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen 2026, Netherlands
Film O'Clock International Festival 2026
Shorts Film Festival Hochschule Offenburg 2026, Germany 
Diaspora Film Festival 2026, South Korea
Vienna Shorts 2026, Austria
​
Director's Statement
As a Ukrainian living in Munich since a long time, I myself
only discovered the traces of the Ukrainian past in my city
quite late on. While researching, I came across the biographies of Lev Rebet and his wife Dariia Rebet, who lived in exile
in Munich after 1945. Both represented modern, democratic political attitudes. In Germany, they published a newspaper
for the Ukrainian diaspora and tried to imagine the future of
a free, independent Ukraine as part of a democratic Europe, even if it seemed very far away.  Now, when independence of Ukraine has to be fought for again, I think that looking back
into history can provide insight and strength. Today's war
is being waged largely over the Ukrainian language, history
and culture, which has been marginalized for a long time.
As an Ukrainian filmmaker I feel the urge in engaging with
our history and approaching it with the means of cinema.
In „Critical condition“ we are spanning an arch from Munich
in 1957, the year when Lev Rebet was assassinated by
the KGB, until today and try to show the continuities of
the critical conditions in which Ukrainians over generations
find themselves in, while also highlighting the place, where
the stories takes place.
By illuminating the narrative from an artistic perspective
​I hope to create space for reflection between the images.

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