Director Ivan Tymchenko's film "Oxygen Station" about Mustafa Dzhemilev and Roman Bondarchuk's film "Editorial", shot in the currently occupied Kherson region, were selected among the 11 winning projects of the Czech Film Fund selection in the minority co-production category.
Czech company Silk Films received EUR 80 000 to co-produce Ivan Tymchenko’s second feature "Oxygen Station", which is a story of Crimean Tatar rights activist, Mustafa Dzhamilev, who became known around the world after going on a 303-day hunger strike in a Soviet prison because of his unjust conviction.
The drama with elements of the comedy "Editorial" by Roman Bondarchuk about the bizarre post-truth world and its search for justice received 100,000 euros of support. The Czech partner is MasterFilm and producer Dagmar Sedlackova. The film is also being created with the help of the State Film Agency of Ukraine.
The film "Oxygen Station" depicts the events of the summer of 1980. Mustafa Dzhemilev is serving a four-year exile in the Yakut village of Zyryanka, where he works at an oxygen station. Every day, he fills the cylinders with oxygen and rolls them to the pier. It is monotonous and exhausting work, in which he is likened to the mythological Sisyphus. The events occur after Mustafa's more than 300-day hunger strike, which made him famous worldwide. Exile in Zyryanka is just one of a series of trials for the fighter for the rights of the Crimean Tatar people, but it could be the last.
The main character of the film "Editorial", a young scientist Yura, accidentally witnesses the burning of a forest. He takes photos of the arsonists to the editorial office of the local newspaper so that media coverage will help expose the criminals. Still, by coincidence, he remains working as a journalist. The new work drags him into the bizarre post-truth world, where facts do not have any meaning, and the surrounding reality almost never coincides with what is written about in the newspaper. At the same time, the new profession helps Yuri to meet people who are kindred to him, true friendship and love.
