One birthday, 70 years of resilience, and a grandson finally asking the right questions.
"LIDA" takes place on the day of Lida's 70th birthday. This already special day is made more unusual by the recent arrival of her grandson, Lev, who had immigrated to the United States with his family in 2001. Returning to Ukraine for the first time as an adult, Lev documents his grandmother as she tends to the small homestead and prepares for the birthday celebration in the rural village in Ukraine. By capturing moments of arduous labor, as well as through personal conversation, Lev inquires into his grandmothers relationship to her home, land - and their family.
Cinematography
Lev's patient lens lets silence breathe like a third character.
Direction
First-time filmmaker transforms family into universal elegy.
Director
Lev Omelchenko
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in Poltava region, the film quietly documents pre-war Ukrainian village life that may no longer exist.
Lida's unbroken labor mirrors millions of unacknowledged Eastern European women who literally built the world men left.
US
