‘Rule of Two Walls’ tells the story of events in Ukraine through the prism of artists who live and create in the midst of war. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 8
The film stars Stepan Burban (Palindrom), Lyana Mytsko (founder of the Lviv Municipal Art Center, concert organizer), Bohdana Davydiuk (artist and illustrator), Serhii Petrov (aka artist Bob Basset), Kinder Album (artist from Lviv), and Diana Berg (author of the ‘Shelter’ project).
The project was directed by David Gutnik, an American of Ukrainian descent, who began work on the film in Poland: ‘In April 2022 I boarded a plane to Warsaw with a one-way ticket and intended to get to Ukraine by bus. My sister, parents, and grandparents belonged to the previous generation of Ukrainian refugees. In Warsaw, I interviewed Ukrainian immigrants, thinking that I would make a documentary about Ukrainians who, like my family, left because of the war. But when I crossed the border into Ukraine, it became clear that I was going to make a film about the remaining Ukrainians’.
Executive producers of ‘Rule of Two Walls’ were Liev Schreiber (actor in ‘Ray Donovan’ and ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’), Olha Beskhmelnytsina and Natalia Libet (‘Parthenon’, ‘Stop-Zemlia’) and others. It is not yet known when the film will premiere in Ukraine.
This is not David Gutnik’s first film to be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2020, his debut feature film MATERNA won Best Cinematography and Best Actress. Gutnik was also nominated for Best New Director.
On June 9, the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival announced this year’s winners. The DOCU/Ukraine National Feature-Length Competition was won by Mstyslav Chernov with his film ‘20 Days in Mariupol’.
