Synopsis

Mariupol. A Hundred Nights tells us a story of a little girl, who wakes up on February 24th because of the air alert and tries to find someone living in the burning city. The main character is based on the story of Alice, a 4-year girl, who stayed in the blocked Mariupol during the whole time, she was also at Azovstal during the last month of defense. When Russians allowed the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal, Alice was separated from her mother. A poem used in the film is The wheels, the wheels, they hit the road (Кolesa hlukho stukotiat ) by Vasyl Stus who was a Ukrainian poet and an active member of the dissident movement in the 60s and 70s. Stus was repressed and died in a gulag.

Sofiia Melnyk

Sofiia Melnyk is a Ukrainian illustrator and animator. In 2018 she graduated from the Animationsinstitut at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and has been working as a freelancer since then. She has illustrated several books and music album covers, worked as an animator, animation supervisor and designer on short movies, as well as animated feature films and documentaries for TV and cinema. Her own projects have more of a documentary touch. After the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine Sofiia has been exploring this topic in her work, participating in projects which are explaining Ukrainian issues to the world and are promoting Ukrainian art.