The Earth Is Blue as an Orange / Zemlia blakytna niby apelsyn

A documentary about a family from Donbas who lives in an area where the war has been ongoing for six years. Hanna, 36 years old, is raising four children on her own. The family constantly hears gunshots, and it seems that war is closing in on them any day now. However, despite their dire circumstances, the family doesn’t lose hope. They strive to overcome all the difficulties with a smile, seeking refuge in their main passions: playing music and creating movies about their lives.

The Earth is as Blue as an Orange stands as one of the most successful Ukrainian documentaries in recent years. It premiered at the Sundance Festival, where the film won the Best Director Award in the category ‘World Cinema Documentary,’ garnering praise from both critics and the public alike. Subsequently, it was presented at numerous prestigious festivals and also received two awards at Docudays UA.

The director and writer, Iryna Tsilyk, selected a quote from a poem by Paul Eluard as the film’s title, serving as a perfect metaphor for the peculiar and surreal world existing between war and peace. Here, fantasy, belief in life, and art become the tools to surmount challenges. Simultaneously, alongside the portrayal of everyday and private lives, the director delves into the life of Krasnohorivka, a town profoundly altered by the war. It affected the fates of ordinary people, first and foremost, among the myriad of towns where the war wrought transformative change.