Ukraine has selected its Academy Award nominee: a drama about a Crimean Tatar family’s journey to lay their son to rest in their Russian-occupied homeland.
“Homeward,” the feature film debut of Crimean Tatar director Nariman Aliev will contend for the U.S.’s most prestigious cinematic prize in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It was the only film submitted to the awards by the Ukrainian Oscar Committee this year.
The 92nd Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, will take place on Feb. 9, 2020, in Los Angeles.
“For us, this is an important stage in the implementation of our film. The main goal is for the movie to be seen both in Ukraine and abroad,” Aliev said in a statement. “Thanks to the Ukrainian Oscar Committee, we have an additional opportunity to enter the North American region with the project. And we will do our best to be a worthy representative of Ukraine’s cultural diplomacy in the world.”
Read also: ‘Homeward’ shows Crimean Tatars’ struggle through one family’s tragedy
“Homeward,” or “Evge,” as it is titled in its original Tatar language, tells the story of a Crimean Tatar family in modern Ukraine. The eldest son, Nazim, is killed in Donbas fighting against Russia. His father, Mustafa, decides to bring the body to Russian-occupied Crimea and bury him there according to Muslim traditions. Mustafa forces his younger son, Alim, to accompany him on a mourning journey across central Ukraine.
The movie was mostly state-financed, having won the Ministry of Culture contest that provides financial aid to patriotic films.
Aliev’s picture premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2019. The Ukrainian premiere took place at the 10th Odesa International Film Festival on July 14, where “Homeward” won the Grand Prix and received a standing ovation.
The picture won another Grand Prix at the Bucharest International Film Festival in July.
Unlike in previous years, “Homeward” was the only film in the running to represent Ukraine at the 2020 Oscars.
Alik Shpyliuk, head of the Ukrainian Oscar Committee, told Detector Media he assumed the producers of other films that premiered this year either did not want to compete with “Homeward” or lacked the resources to do so.
Director Aliev co-wrote the script with Ukrainian filmmaker Marysia Nikitiuk.
The main roles are played by well-known Crimean Tatar actor and director Akhtem Seitablayev (Mustafa) and non-professional actor Remzi Bilialov (Alim).
France and the U.K. will see the film’s first distribution. “Homeward” will hit Ukrainian cinemas on Nov. 7. Some screenings in Kyiv will include English subtitles.
In 2019, the drama “Donbass” by Belarus-born Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa represented Ukraine at the Oscars. The grotesque film about the consequences of Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine didn’t make it to the shortlist.
