Der Film

Larysa, a spirited and ambitious young Ukrainian, has recently moved to an isolated village with her 5-yearold cousin. Longing for a time when she won’t have to stand the countryside and her strict grandmother anymore, the teenager falls for a thug whom she plans to run away with. But where can they run to when none of the roads lead anywhere and all dreams are forbidden? Gracefully capturing the teenage spleen in the dystopian landscapes of the former USSR, When the Trees Fall centres on people that exist out of time. Using the run down town of Lozova as a sinister backdrop, the brutal crimes that are told sometimes become suffused with striking touches of magic realism. Half slow burning crime story, half spiritual hallucination, Marysia Nikitiuk’s debut feature is a crowning achievement of photography, a revelation.