The Earth Is Blue as an Orange

The Earth Is Blue as an Orange is a 2020 documentary film, directed and written by Iryna Tsilyk, who won the Directing Award in the "World Cinema Documentary” category for the film at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
Synopsis
Single mother Hanna and her four children live in the front-line war zone of Donbas, Ukraine. While the outside world is made up of bombings and chaos, the family is managing to keep their home as a safe haven, full of life and full of light. Every member of the family has a passion for cinema, motivating them to shoot a film inspired by their own life during a time of war.
The creative process raises the question of what kind of power the magical world of cinema could have during times of disaster. How to picture war through fiction? For Hanna and the children, transforming trauma into a work of art is the ultimate way to stay human.
Production
The film is produced by Anna Kapustina ("Albatros Communicos", Ukraine) and Giedrė Žickytė ("Moonmakers", Lithuania) with the support of Ukrainian State Film Agency, Lithuanian Film Centre, IDFA Bertha Fund (Netherlands).
Release
It was selected for the official program of 2020 Berlin International Film Festival (Generation 14+), the 2020 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Best of Fests), Documentary Selection by European Film Academy 2020 2020 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, 2020 Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, 2020 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, 2020 Adelaide Film Festival and more than 100 other International film festivals.
The film had theatrical distribution in Ukraine, Lithuania, France, Italy.
Characters
Myroslava Trofymchuk
Hanna Gladka
Stanislav Gladky
Anastasiia Trofymchuk
Vladyslav Trofymchuk
Reception
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange has an approval rating of 93% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews, and an average rating of 8.2/10. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Guy Lodge, writing for Variety, wrote, "It’s an apt inversion for a documentary in which the roles of filmmaker, viewer and subject are as inextricably fused as life and art". Amber Wilkinson of Screen International wrote, "Iryna Tsilyk offers an intimate and surprisingly playful family’s eye view of life in the Ukraine warzone in her debut feature documentary, which focuses on the Trofymchuk-Gladky clan".
Awards
WINNER: Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary of 2020 Sundance Film Festival, USA 2020
WINNER: Best Cinematography award of 2020 International Documentary Association Awards, USA
WINNER: Spotlight Award of Cinema Eye Honors, USA 2021
WINNER: Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize of Seattle International Film Festival, USA 2021
WINNER: ZIFF Grand Award of Zinebi - Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival, Spain 2020
WINNER: Grand Prix of Millenium Docs Against Gravity film festival, Poland 2020
WINNER: DOCU/World award of Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Ukraine 2020
WINNER: DOCU/Ukraine award of Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Ukraine 2020
WINNER: Award for Best Cinematography of Millenium Docs Against Gravity film festival, Poland 2020
WINNER: Special Prize of the Jury of Artdocfest/Riga, Latvia 2021
WINNER: Best Documentary Film of Ukrainian Film Critics Award "Kinokolo", Ukraine 2020
WINNER: Best Debut (Premia Hera "Nuovi Talenti") of Biografilm Festival, Italy 2020
WINNER: Best Human Rights Doc of Dokufest, Kosovo 2020
WINNER: Best Documentary Film of Five Lakes Film Festival, Germany 2020
WINNER: Jury's Prize for Best film of Al Este Festival de Cine Peru, 2020
WINNER: Press Jury's prize for Best film of Al Este Festival de Cine Peru, 2020
WINNER: DoXX Award of Tallgrass Film Festival, USA 2020
WINNER: Bydgoszcz ART.DOC Award, Poland 2020
WINNER: "Movies That Matter" special prize of ZagrebDox, Croatia 2021
WINNER: "Best Documentary film" of Golden Dzyga awards, Ukraine 2021
WINNER: "Best Documentary film" of MajorDocs, Spain 2021
WINNER: “Best co-production film of the year" of the Lithuanian National Film Award “Sidabrinė gervė”, 2022
WINNER: Jury Special Award of Ânûû-rû Âboro Film Festival, 2022
Special Mention: International competition of Underhill Fest, Montenegro 2020
Special Jury Mention: of CineDOC Tbilisi, Georgia 2020
Special Mention: Different Tomorrow category at Reykjavik International Film Festival, Iceland 2020
Special Jury Mention: Zurich Film Festival, Switzerland 2020
Special Mention: Human Rights Film Award of Verzio Film Festival, Hungary 2020
Special Mention: Minsk IFF Listapad, Belarus 2020
Special Jury Mention: Premiers Plans - Angers Film Festival, France 2021
Reviews
The Earth Is Blue As an Orange review – subtle doc tells Ukrainian family’s war story. Phil Hoad, The Guardian
Review: The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (2020), by Iryna Tsilyk. Marko Stojiljković, Ubiquarian
Review: The Earth Is Blue as an Orange. Teresa Vena, Cineuropa
Orange is the New Blue: Film Review. Zoe Aiano, EEFB
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange: Film Review, German. Lida Bach, Moviebreak
The healing power of cinema: Film Review. Lauren Wissot, Modern Times Review
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange: Film Review. Davide Abbatescianni, Filmexplorer
References
External links
2020 films
Ukrainian documentary films
2020 documentary films
Sundance Film Festival award-winning films
War in Donbas films