“Frost,” a new movie about Russia’s war against Ukraine, has a big name star – the French actress and popular singer Vanessa Paradis.
The movie is a joint production by Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and France. The film’s lead producer, Janja Kralj, interviewed by U.S. entertainment magazine Variety, described “Frost” as “an ambitious road-movie under the snow through Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, all the way to the border of the war-zone” and “a unique trip in today’s Ukraine.”
The movie tells the story about a young Lithuanian man, Rockas, who wants to find out what is going on in Ukraine. Rockas travels to Ukraine with a humanitarian convoy and sees the horrors of war, and finds the reality of the situation much grimmer than his romantic ideas about war. On the frontlines, amid shooting and death, Rockas meets some war reporters, one of whom is a woman, played by Paradis.
“This movie is about volunteers, Russia’s war against Ukraine, love, and lots of other things,” says Ukrainian actor Boris Abramov, who plays the role of a war correspondent.
Besides Paradis, the other prominent actors in the movie include Lithuanian stage actor Mantas Jancauskas, who plays Rockas, and Polish actor Andrzej Chyra – known for starring in “Katyn” by Andrzej Wajda – also plays the role of a war reporter.
The film’s director is Sarunas Bartas, one of Lithuania’s most prominent film directors, whose movie “Peace to Us in Our Dreams” was selected for screening at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2015. Bartas is very popular in France, and last year he gained even greater recognition through his photo exhibition and workshops at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
Paradis agreed to star in Bartas’ newest movie even though her payment was minimal, producers say. The budget of “Frost” was 850,000 euros, and the actress earned “a very different sum to that Vanessa usually gets for movie appearances,” according to the film’s producer, Olena Yershova.
The shooting started last month on mainland Ukraine close to the border with Russian-occupied Crimea. In mid-December, shooting continued in Kyiv, during which time Paradis was spotted in central Kyiv, not far from Besarabska Square. Recently, the film crew moved to the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro and traveled daily to the outskirts of Sinelnykove, a town some 40 kilometers east of Dnipro, for nighttime shootings of war scenes. Shooting with Paradis were completed on Jan. 28 and the actress left Dnipro for France.
“Paradis is an interesting actress and a beautiful woman. It was comfortable to work with her, and on location there were no conflicts at all,” Jancauskas was quoted as saying in an interview with the tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Further filming is to take place in Poland and Lithuania. The film’s premiere is scheduled for this year.
