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2025 SFFILM Festival

Timestamp

Directed by Kateryna Gornostai

Ukraine | Documentary | 125

26 Apr
Sat, Apr 26 at 3:30 pm PT

Description

In the years since the Russian invasion, war rages on. In towns across Ukraine, schools try to provide a kind of normalcy for children—despite some classrooms damaged by bombs and others reduced to rubble. Regardless of their surroundings, kids recite rhymes, make friends, learn English, and awkwardly practice for their spring dance. As soon as it feels like just another day at school, an air raid alarm pierces the air and children immediately rely on their survival skills. Kateryna Gornostai (Berlinale Crystal Bear winner Stop-Zemlia) makes her documentary feature debut with this cinema vérité work featuring poignant observations of persistence. Shot between March 2023 and June 2024, the film bears witness to how the ordinary act of attending school becomes an extraordinary feat of reliance with parents and teachers fighting to ensure their children have access to the transformative power of knowledge. A portrait of childhoods caught in the maw of war, Timestamp presents a generation learning lessons of resistance alongside math and history.—Bedatri Choudhury

Director Kateryna Gornostai

Kateryna Gornostai was born in Lutsk, Ukraine, and now makes her home in Kyiv. After studying biology and journalism at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, she then studied at Moscow’s School of Marina Razbezhkina and Mikhail Ugarov Documentary Film and Theatre. She began her career making short films, among them Mizh namy (2013), Skriz Maidan (2015), Away (2015), and Lilac (2017). Stop-Zemlia (2021), her first narrative feature, won the Crystal Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Timestamp is her documentary feature debut.

Film Details

LanguageUkrainian, English

Original Language TitleStrichka chasu

Year2025

Runtime125

CountryFrance, Luxembourg, Netherlands

DirectorKateryna Gornostai

ProducerNatalia Libet, Olha Bregman

Executive ProducerZoya Lytvyn

EditorNikon Romanchenko

CinematographerOleksandr Roshchyn

MusicAlexey Shmurak

Closed CaptionsClosed Captions are not currently confirmed for this film

Audio DescriptionAudio Descriptions are not currently confirmed for this film

American Sign Language (ASL) InterpretationAmerican Sign Language Interpretation is not currently scheduled for this film