Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival is one of the world’s most prestigious film events, bringing together filmmakers, actors, producers, and critics from across the globe. Held each year on the French Riviera, it celebrates cinematic excellence, artistic innovation, and international storytelling. More than a competition, Cannes is a global showcase where films can launch careers, spark debate, and leave a lasting cultural impact.

2026

Co-Adaptation of "Vesna" (Printemps)

Directed by Rostislav Kirpičenko
Official Selection – Special Screenings

Cannes Film Festival 2026

I had the privilege of co-adapting the movie "Vesna", directed by Rostislav Kirpičenko, together with two fellow translators, as part of an international co-production (Ukraine / France / Lithuania) selected in the Official Selection (Special Screenings) at the Cannes Film Festival 2026.

The film offers an intimate & deeply human portrayal of life in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

At its heart is an Orthodox priest who is forced by occupying forces to conceal the bodies of the dead — a task that profoundly repulses him, as burials are forbidden in order to erase evidence of violence. Faced with this moral fracture, he chooses to defy the imposed rules: at night, in silence, he returns the dead to their families, restoring dignity through clandestine funeral rites.

Around him unfolds the daily life of families and children, and the fragile, complex relationships between individuals navigating fear, loss, and conscience.

The film’s aesthetic is deliberately pared down and restrained, allowing silence, stillness, and minimal gesture to carry the weight of what cannot be spoken. In this quiet space, the gravity of each decision — and the courage it requires — becomes profoundly tangible.

From an adaptation perspective, the work also involved navigating the subtle interplay between Russian and Ukrainian — two languages that coexist within the film with distinct emotional, cultural, and political resonances.

Rendering these nuances into French required careful attention to tone, register, and subtext, in order to preserve the layered meaning carried by each linguistic choice.

In this context, language itself became a narrative tool — a way of making the conflict perceptible beyond what is explicitly shown.

I am deeply grateful to have been involved in such a project, where artistic rigor meets a subject of essential human and ethical significance.

From a professional standpoint, this experience reflects my commitment to collaborative adaptation, where dialogue, precision, and respect for the original voice are key. Working alongside two fellow translators allowed us to refine the text collectively and serve the film’s emotional and narrative integrity with care.

Being part of a film presented in the Official Selection of Cannes represents a meaningful milestone, situating the work within a curated international context and opening the path to further circulation across festivals and audiences worldwide.

I am honored to contribute to projects that give voice to stories of resilience, conscience, and humanity — across languages and borders.

2023

I have had the privilege of accompanying Olia Onyshko, a Ukrainian filmmaker whose work stands at the crossroads of cinema, memory, and civic conscience. Supporting her has meant engaging with an artistic voice deeply shaped by history, exile, and the ethical urgency of bearing witness. Her cinematic work is rooted in documentary storytelling and focuses in particular on Ukraine’s social and political experience, with films such as Three Stories of Galicia and Women of Maidan, which explore identity, historical memory, and the human dimension of national upheaval. Originally from Western Ukraine, she began her career as a broadcast journalist before moving into filmmaking, and her work has been recognized internationally for its emotional force and moral clarity.