
Darya Zhuk
Directing
Biography
Belarus-born award-winning film director Darya Zhuk has been obsessing over filmmaking long enough to see her short films selected at SXSW, Tarkovsky, Oaxaca, Atlanta, Palm Springs, Koroche, Santa Fe Independent film festivals, to name a few. She is a graduate of Columbia University MFA program in Directing. Darya lives and creates between Minsk and Brooklyn. In 2015, she won the best female writer/director award from New York Women in Film and Television for her short film The Real American. Her feature debut Crystal Swan screened in the East of the West Competition at Karlovy Vary IFF 2018 and won the Grand Prix at the Odesa International Film Festival.
Known For

Moscow, present day. The city of big money, passion, gorgeous women and wealthy men, receptions and dangerous intrigue. Dasha, an art historian from the province, who came to the capital, dreams of a new, better life, but a mysterious and cruel incident will change everything.
Russian Affairs

This anthology series about timeless moral questions in unprecedented times, takes provocative concepts and brings them into the open, delivering three-dimensional, character-driven stories with humor and heart.
The Premise

Minsk, Belarus, 1996. Velya, an aspiring DJ, wants to move to Chicago to make her dreams come true, but bureaucracy, a phone line and the human condition will put obstacles in her way that will be difficult to avoid.
Crystal Swan

Russian exchange student Alya struggles to fit into what it means to be an American teenage girl in 1994 when she realizes her host father has a crush on her.
The Real American

Ukrainian journalist Katya Soldak, currently living in New York City and working for Forbes magazine, chronicles Ukraine's history: its strong ties to Russia for centuries; how it broke away from the USSR and began to walk alone; the Orange Revolution, the Maidan Revolution, the Crimea annexation, the Donbass War; all through the eyes of her family and friends settled in Kharkiv, a large Ukrainian city located just eighteen miles from the Russian border.
The Long Breakup

When unsuspecting tourist hooks up with a local girl, he finds himself trapped in a love triangle.
Eat the Tourists

After a rare diagnosis, Lily's attempts to flee from war torn Israel are thwarted when the airport shuts down and her zany cousin forces her to party.
What Doesn't Kill You

In an attempt to break away from her religious upbringing, a young Jewish woman sets up an Internet date. The cruelty of casual sex triggers a painful obsession that this fragile character must overcome.
Wax

A Film about Anna Akhmatova is not a biopic. Rather, it is a live process of recreating a story akin to ancient tragedy. Before the viewer's eyes it emerges from archival and modern footage, unique sound recordings of Akhmatova's voice, her poems and photographs, and the many paintings and portraits of her, with the commentary of the poet Anatoly Naiman, who knew Akhmatova in her last years.
A Film about Anna Akhmatova
The picture is about the impossibility of love of two young people. In the picture, the authors ask themselves whether the responsible person can be happy, how to choose between what you want and what is right and what is generally right.
Through the Eyes of Others

When six year-old Katya explores the experience of death, she discovers life like she has never seen before.
The Air Inside Her

Searching for an escape from an impoverished city life, a retired couple moves to an abandoned country house in the radioactive zone of Chernobyl. Twenty five years after the disaster, the husband is convinced the land is ready to be cultivated, his wife on the other hand is less sure. A fable of love, Half-Life explores the boundaries of commitment and fear.
Half-Life
A fictional adaptation of the history of the movement, which began in Ukraine and has spread around the world.