Director
Vladlena Sandu
Edition 2026
98'
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2025
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Documentary
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Format:
DCP
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Dialogue:
Russian
In the deeply personal, poetic documentary Memory, Crimea-born filmmaker Vladlena Sandu seeks to deal with the war trauma from her Chechen childhood. She longs to transform fear into love using the power of imagination as her weapon, rooted in her memories and directed towards a future for children. A haunting, evocative and almost mythical feature-length debut.
Born in Crimea, Vladlena Sandu was sent to live with her grandparents in Grozny, Chechnya at a young age. There, in 1994, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, she became caught up in Russia's occupying war against the Chechen people. Aggression engulfed the city and her family. With her autobiographical feature debut Memory, the director bravely returns to the traumatic memories of her childhood. The film opened Giornate degli Autori, an independent section of the Venice Film Festival. Through an imaginative visual language inspired by the work of Sergei Parajanov and Andrei Tarkovsky, Sandu seeks an answer to the fundamental question of how to break the cycle of violence – before it shapes the next generation of children. Innocence is poetically contrasted with loss across a series of poignant and intimate tableaux. What role can art play in the healing process? Despite everything, Sandu remains hopeful.
Image gallery
Credits
Directors
Vladlena Sandu
Sound Designer
Philippe Grivel
Scenario
Vladlena Sandu
Director of Photography
Liza Popova
Editors
Vladlena Sandu
Producers
Yanna Buryak
Sales agent
Loco Films
Production studios
Mimesis
More info
Dialogue
Russian
Countries of production
The Netherlands, France
Year
2025
Filmography
Vladlena Sandu
Memory (2025), Bez kultury net natsii (short, 2022), Vosem kartin iz zhizni Nasti Sokolovoy (short, 2018), Holy God (short, 2017), Kira (short, 2015)
Technical Specs
Format
DCP
