The Council for State Support of Cinematography has decided to support Oleg Sentsov's criminal drama project "Rhinoceros". Filming is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2020.
Preparations for the filming of the film began in 2013, but due to the director's illegal imprisonment in Russia, the production of the film did not begin, - the press service of Arthouse Traffic reports.
"Rhino" is a criminal drama, the events of which unfold in Ukraine in the 90s. This is an era that has changed us all - the transition from the Soviet Union to our modern day, but all those challenges are still relevant to our society. Films about these times have not been made in Ukrainian cinema yet, so I think it is important to talk about it, to look inside ourselves, - says the director and author of the script Oleh Sentsov. "We've seen a lot of tapes about bandits, but I'm interested in a person first of all: how he feels, why he acts this way, whether such a person can change… After all, there are no bad people, there are people who do bad things."
The film is co-produced by Ukraine, Germany and Poland. The total budget is 1.65 million euros. The Rhinoceros Project is the winner of the 2012 State Film Agency of Ukraine's competition for film projects, and has received major awards from the industrial sections of film festivals in Sofia, Yerevan and Odessa.
The Ukrainian side of the project is represented by Krai Kinema, founded by Oleg Sentsov in 2008, and Arthouse Traffic. Polish partners - Apple Film Production - have already worked with Oleg Sentsov to create the film "Numbers", which premiered at the Berlin IFF this year. The German side - the film company Ma.ja.de, which co-produced Arthouse Traffic with Sergei Loznitsa's drama "Donbass", was awarded the prize for best director of the "Special View" section of the Cannes Film Festival 2018.
Funding from the State Agency of Ukraine for Cinema is 50% of the budget of Oleg Sentsov's film "Rhinoceros" (25 million 100 thousand hryvnias). Prior to that, the project received financial support from the German film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Polish Film Institute.
