Crystal Swan

Khrustal

59th TIFF: Greek Premiere

Young Evelina has a law degree, but she dreams of living in the US as a professional DJ. The only problem is that she lives in 1996 Belarus, so in order to obtain a visa she needs to provide evidence at the embassy that she has a permanent job. In her effort to trick the system, she resorts in a small factory town and tries to persuade a family preparing for the wedding of their son to help her – but she fails to predict the grotesque consequences. An ingenious, ironic take on the wastewater of Cold War and the American Dream, in sync with the addictive beat of 90s house music.

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.


Direction: Darya Zhuk
Script: Helga Landauer, Darya Zhuk
Cinematography: Carolina Costa
Editing: Sergey Dmitrenko, Michał Leszczyłowsk
Sound: Oliver Achatz
Music: Andreas Lucas
Actors: Alina Nasibullina, Ivan Mulin, Yury Borisov, Svetlana Anikey, Ilya Kapanets, Ludmila Razumova, Natalya Onishenko, Vyacheslav Shakalido, Anastasiya Gavrya
Production: Turnstyle TV LLC
Producers: Birgit Gernböck, Olga Goister, Debbie Vandermeulen, Valery Dmitrotchenko
Co-production: Demarsh Films Minsk, Unfound Content, Fusion Features, Vice Media
Co-producers: Andrey Isachenko
Art Direction: Andrey Tolstik
Executive producer: Danny Gabai, Will McCance, Eddy Moretti, Dmitriy Osmerkin, Chris Schuman, Shane Smith, Bernie Stern
Format: DCP
Color: Color
Production Country: Belarus, Germany, USA, Russia
Production Year: 2018
Duration: 93΄
Contact: Loco Films, info@loco-films.com
Awards/Distinctions: Golden Duke – Odessa IFF 2018

Darya Zhuk

Belarus-born award-winning film director Darya Zhuk has been obsessing about filmmaking long enough to see her short films selected to SXSW, Tarkovsky, Oaxaca, Atlanta, Palm Springs, Koroche, Santa Fe Independent film festivals, just to name a few. She is a graduate of Columbia University MFA program in Directing. Darya lives and creates between Minsk and Brooklyn. Crystal Swan is her feature debut.

Filmography

2011 The Air Inside Her (short)
2012 Half-Life (short)
2013 WAX (short)
2014 Eat the Tourists (short)
2015 What Doesn’t Kill You (short)
2015 The Real American (short)
2016 Like a Dream (short doc)
2018 Crystal Swan