Stop-Zemlia

Stop-Zemlia (Ukrainian: Стоп-Земля) is a 2021 Ukrainian romance, coming-of-age and drama film directed and written by Ukrainian director Kateryna Gornostai, and starring Maria Fedorchenko, Arsenii Markov, Yana Isaienko and Oleksandr Ivanov. The feature film portrays a teenage coming of age story. All the depicted events are fiction, but creative team attempted to portray them as improvisations. The characters had a set of activities when the script was written, but they gained traits once the actors were found. The film was first released on May 3, 2021 in Berlin International Film Festival, and received the Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the Generation 14plus competition. The film received positive reviews from critics. Later the film appeared at the 12th Odesa International Film Festival (OIFF) on August 19, 2021, where the film received the main award of the festival - the Grand Prix. Kateryna Gornostai also became the winner of Duke in the nomination Best Full-Length Film. On March 9, 2022, the film was awarded the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine. The film's director, Kateryna Gornostai, opened the presentation by stating that the title 'Stop-Zemlia' is important to the film's success, and the film ended up keeping the same title in English, as so not to lose its intended impact. Kateryna spent about a year looking for real people to play the heroine and the class of students, and the chosen actors then underwent a 7 week acting workshop together before filming began.