The Ukrainian crime drama "La Palisade" will represent our country at the "Oscar"

Ukraine is again trying to conquer the world cinematographic scene, and this time with the criminal drama "La Palisade" directed by Philip Sotnichenko. This film will be our representative at the Oscars in the "Best International Feature Film" nomination.

Philip Sotnychenko: a new voice of Ukrainian cinematography

For Philip Sotnichenko "La Palisade" was his debut in a feature film. The director had previously achieved success in the short format, and now he has managed to create a film that has already gained international recognition.

"I didn't want to talk about the 90s, but about the present, in which we find ourselves, " is how Philip Sotnychenko explains his creative idea.

The plot of the film: a detective story without clichés

The action of the tape takes place in 1996, a few months before the introduction of a moratorium on the death penalty in Ukraine. A police colonel is murdered in Uzhhorod. His friends — a forensic psychiatrist and a police detective — take over the investigation. They are in a hurry to sentence the murderer to the maximum penalty, but the suspect does not deny his involvement in the crime.

International recognition and awards

"La Palisade" was presented for the first time at the Rotterdam Film Festival in December 2023, where it won the FIPRESSI award. Since then, the film has won numerous awards, including Best Film at the Turin and Vilnius Film Festivals.

Perception by critics and the public

Despite the weak performance at the box office, where "La Palisade" collected 1.5 million UAH against a budget of 14 million UAH, critics were extremely favorable to Sotnichenko's work. They especially praised the accurate transmission of the atmosphere of the nineties, the avoidance of blackness and the romanticization of that difficult period.

"Sotnichenko portrays characters who, from the Soviet era, have the habit of closing cases "for the sake of a check mark" without digging into the truth. At the same time, he shows his characters as normal people with their good and bad traits."

Forecast for the future

Despite the fact that the film has already won numerous awards and positive reviews from critics, the most important test is still ahead — "Oscar". Will "La Palisade" bring Ukraine the first prize in this nomination? Time will tell.

Editor: Vitalina Patskan