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Production is to commence in Ukraine in February 2023.

Canadian outfits Apollo Pictures and FirstGen Entertainment have lined up their next feature project, Hell Is Empty All The Demons Are Here, about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It will begin filming in Ukraine on February 24 – exactly one year after Russia invaded.

The Ukrainian-language feature is to be directed by Akhtem Seitablaev, a Ukrainian filmmaker of Crimean Tatar origin, whose previous credits include 2019 historical epic The Rising Hawk. Seitablaev is also serving in the Ukrainian armed forces.

It is based on actual events during the onset of the war, focusing on the interwoven experiences of locals.

A father and son confront personal and historic agonies on the road to bury their loved one in the land from where their people were displaced

In Homeward, personal and collective pains weave together to make a quietly searing work. Nariman Aliev’s directorial debut depicts the rootlessness of the Crimean Tatars, as well as his own personal history of displacement. Though having a cross-country odyssey at the centre of its narrative, the film acutely understands what many road trip movies have missed: for marginalised people, the open road rarely equates to freedom. In fact, the Tatars in Homeward are constantly subjected to aggressions from others as well as state surveillance.

The journey begins at a place of death: the morgue. Mustafa (Akhtem Seitablaev) is here to pick up the body of his son Nazim (Anatoliy Marempolskiy) who has died in the Russo-Ukrainian war. His other son Alim (Remzi Bilyalov), a college student,...

Bear attacks and marauding hordes can’t rescue this dismal attempt to conjure up an epic medieval adventure

Say what you like about the artistic integrity of Game of Thrones, but at least it never skimped on the saucy stuff. Fall of a Kingdom pitches itself as “Game of Thrones meets Braveheart”, but lacks the redeeming feature that united both those sources of inspiration: entertainment value. It’s a dull historical action drama that is in desperate need of some gratuitous sex or violence to liven up its near two-hour running time.

Originally called The Rising Hawk and shot in Ukraine (home country of co-director Akhtem Seitablaev), Fall of a Kingdom attempts to conjure an epic sense of adventure with its Carpathian mountains backdrop and large cast of costumed extras. Maksim (Alex MacNicholl) and Myroslava (Poppy Drayton) are the children of rival neighbouring chieftains; they begin courting during a bear attack,...

"Be the one who unites us against the Mongols!" Signature Ent. in the UK has unveiled an official UK trailer for a historical action epic titled Fall of a Kingdom, the new title for a film originally called The Rising Hawk. Made in Ukraine with a Ukrainian filmmaker, the story is about a 13th century family of freedom fighters battling for their lives and liberty in the face of the Mongolian Empire. Their empire had grown to the largest the world had ever known. It's armies now laid siege to much of Eastern Europe. But one small village fights back in the frontier landscape of the Carpathian Mountains. Starring an English-speaking cast including Robert Patrick, Tommy Flanagan, Alison Doody, Poppy Drayton, Alex MacNicoll, and Rocky Myers, Fall of a Kingdom is a fervent "historical, action epic; a tale of power, betrayal, & revenge." Here's the UK trailer (+ poster) for Akhtem Seitablaev...

Ukrainian-u.S. historical action film The Rising Hawk has pre-sold to Spain’s Flins & Piniculas, production and distribution company Film.UA said Thursday.

Based on the novella Zakhar Berkut by classical Ukrainian author Ivan Franko, the movie features a large international cast from Ukraine, the U.S., the U.K., Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

The cast includes Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle), Tommy Flanagan (Braveheart, Sin City), Poppy Drayton (Downtown Abbey, The Little Mermaid) and Alison Doody (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, A View to a Kill).

Directed by Akhtem Seitablaev and John Wynn, Rising ...

Ukrainian-u.S. historical action film The Rising Hawk has pre-sold to Spain’s Flins & Piniculas, production and distribution company Film.UA said Thursday.

Based on the novella Zakhar Berkut by classical Ukrainian author Ivan Franko, the movie features a large international cast from Ukraine, the U.S., the U.K., Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

The cast includes Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle), Tommy Flanagan (Braveheart, Sin City), Poppy Drayton (Downtown Abbey, The Little Mermaid) and Alison Doody (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, A View to a Kill).

Directed by Akhtem Seitablaev and John Wynn, Rising ...

New film from The Tribe director among projects at Odessa.

New films by award-winning Ukrainian director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (The Tribe), documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky (Pipeline) and Lithuania’s Sharunas Bartas (Freedom) are among over two dozen projects being presented at the Odessa International Film Festival’s industry section, the Film Industry Office (Fio, July 14-17).

Bartas’ drama Frost, which is being structured as a co-production between Ukraine, Lithuania and France, tells the story of a young Lithuanian’s experiences as he drives his truck with humanitarian aid from Vilnius to Ukraine.

The $936,000 (€850,000) production by Odessa-based Truman Production is one of ten feature film projects competing for a prize to be judged by a jury made up of the producers Guillaume de Seille, Raymond van der Kaaij and Anna Katchko as well as Meetings on the Bridge chief Gülin Üstün.

The pitching line-up this year ranges from Sebastian Saam’s black comedy-thriller Midnight In Uman (working title) through...