Ukrainian Gymnast Drama OLGA Opens NYC (June 24) & LA (July 8)
KINO LORBER PRESENTS “OLGA”
Powerful Portrait of A Teenage Ukrainian Gymnast In Exile from Writer/Director Elie Grappe
Starring Anastasiia Budiashkina
Winner: SACD Prize, Cannes Semaine de la Critique 2021
Opens in New York on June 24
Opens in Los Angeles on July 8
“Grappe paints indelible images of physically powerful, mentally vulnerable young women who want to step up to the podium at all costs… Budiashkina is a terrific presence, and the film is in thrall to her powers.”
– Fionnuala Halligan, SCREEN INTERNATIONAL
“This is a film whose ideas and emotions have come into a fierce new focus… in its unexpected way, this film speaks to the new agony of banishment now being felt by millions of Ukrainians.”
– Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN
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Kino Lorber is pleased to present OLGA, a powerful story of resilience and identity from debut writer/director Elie Grappe. The film was awarded the SACD Prize at the 2021 Cannes Critics’ Week and stars former Ukrainian National Team gymnast Anastasiia Budiashkina in her first film role. It will open theatrically at the Quad in New York on Friday, June 24, before expanding to more cities nationwide, including Los Angeles on Friday, July 8, at the Laemmle Royal.
Olga is a talented teenage Ukrainian gymnast exiled in Switzerland, dreaming of Olympic gold and trying to fit in with her new team in her new home. As she prepares for the European Championships, the Ukrainian people back home in Kyiv rise up in what has become known as the Maidan Revolution, suddenly involving everyone she cares about. Olga is left a powerless, distant bystander as her mother, an investigative journalist, faces danger as she challenges the brutal Yanukovich regime. Incorporating documentary footage from the 2013 uprising, Olga is a tense, sensitively handled tale of exile reflecting the clash between the personal and the political in a young woman’s search for identity.
87 min. In French, Ukrainian, and Russian with English subtitles.
A Kino Lorber release. Not rated.