FFG On Tour with Timestamp

Hope in Times of War

“People need hope. And school represents everything they hope for their children: a better future, a world rising from the rubble.” With these words, journalist Rudi Vranckx once described the power of education in seemingly hopeless situations. With Timestamp, Film Fest Gent chooses to go On Tour during its 52nd edition with a fragile yet urgent call for humanity, for the strength of education and community, and a powerful indictment of the devastation caused by war.

The documentary was filmed in Ukraine between March 2023 and June 2024 at the initiative of the education organisation Osvitoria. Despite the constant threat of war, school life continues as normally as possible. Pupils and teachers attempt to preserve fragments of their former lives, however surreal that may sometimes seem.

A cheerful school performance in the outskirts of Kyiv is abruptly interrupted by an air raid siren. Everyone has two minutes to reach the shelter. Later, pupils are given the same two minutes as the time limit for a classroom assignment. Throughout the film, alarms pierce the air unexpectedly, alternating with the a cappella choir compositions of Alexey Shmurak and the ominous ticking of a clock during moments of national silence.

The title refers to the timestamp written on a tourniquet: crucial for knowing when it can safely be removed. As the only documentary in the main competition of the Berlin International Film Festival, Timestamp presents a mosaic of school and community life: in person or online, in makeshift classrooms, in liberated cities or those still under threat. The film celebrates the resilience of local communities, where every fragment counts.

At the 52nd edition of Film Fest Gent, Timestamp is part of the Competition, making it eligible for the Grand Prix for Best Film and the Georges Delerue Award for Best Soundtrack or Sound Design. The International Jury will announce the winners on 18 October.

After the screening, all participating venues will present a pre-recorded interview with film journalist Tim Maerschand and director Kateryna Gornostaj. Through its On Tour programme, Film Fest Gent brings monthly avant-premières to cinemas and cultural centres in Flanders and Brussels. Tickets are available via the participating venues:

• • Film Fest Gent
  • Cinema Lumière Antwerpen
  • Cinema Lumière Brugge
  • Hamme - CC Jan Tervaert

  • Flagey

  • Cinema ZED

  • Weststrand

  • Leietheater Deinze (15.10)

  • CC Den Blank

  • Ter Dilft

  • CC Zoetegem

  • Cinema Westside - CC Evergem

  • De Wiek - Zele (19.10)