The documentary film ‘Divia’ by director Dmytro Hreshko (‘King Lear: How We Looked for Love During the War’) will compete for the main award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, taking place this year from July 4 to 12. It’s an observational film about the impact of the russian invasion on Ukraine’s environment and how nature resists this aggression and recovers
The synopsis describes ‘Divia’ as ‘a journey from the harmonious life of nature, to the fiery vortex of war, which burns the earth, forests and all living things’. The film’s main characters — ecologists, sappers, body recoverers, and animal rights activists — try to measure the scale of the tragedy, clear the land of explosive devices, protect animals, and restore lost natural resources.
The film’s title comes from a Slavic goddess of nature who embodies the mother of all living beings.
Work on the film began in spring 2022. Filming took place both near the front line and in Ukrainian nature reserves, as well as in the de-occupied territories of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.
Immediately after the russian military blew up the Kakhovka Dam, the film’s director and cinematographer Dmytro Hreshko, together with cinematographer Volodymyr Usyk, went there to document the flooded Kherson region, animal rescue efforts, and the aftermath of the tragedy.
The film also includes archival footage of Ukrainian nature before the war, shot by the Ukraïner team. In ‘Divia’, viewers can see scenes from the national nature parks ‘Holy Mountains’ and ‘Oleshky Sands’, as well as footage from Crimea and other reserves that were destroyed or occupied by the russians.
The music for the film was composed by British composer and sound producer, Grammy Award winner Sam Slater (‘Chornobyl’, ‘Battlefield 2042’, ‘Joker’, ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’).
About Dmytro Hreshko
He began working in documentary filmmaking in 2018, shooting his first project, ‘66 Scenes of Uzhhorod’. In 2019, he completed a one-week narrative film directing course at the Skalka Film School under the guidance of Viacheslav Yehorov, as well as a two-month auteur documentary filmmaking course, CinemaLab, at the Kharkiv Academy of Visual Arts, led by Liubov Durakova and Alisa Kovalenko.
In 2020, he studied at the Indie Lab documentary film school under the mentorship of Dmytro Tiazhlov and Ella Shtyka. Since 2020, he has been involved in organizing events for the Transcarpathian Film Commission to develop the film industry in the Transcarpathia region. He is a co-founder and director of the Carpathian Mountain International Film Festival (CMIFF) in Uzhhorod.
At the end of 2024, he joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and became a member of the ‘Cultural Forces’ association.
About the Karlovy Vary Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) is one of the most prestigious and oldest film festivals in Central and Eastern Europe. Founded in 1946, it takes place annually in the spa town of Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
Since 1956, it has held the status of a Class ‘A’ festival according to FIAPF classification, on par with the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice festivals.
