It has already delighted festival audiences; now the time has come to win over Polish viewers. “Rhino” by Ołeh Sencow, the Ukrainian director and social activist, arrives on Polish cinema screens on 10 December.
The “Rhino” project earned international recognition early on, winning awards in Sofia, Yerevan and Odessa back in 2012, while still at the project presentation stage. Shooting was due to begin in 2014, but preparations were cut short when Sencow was imprisoned on fabricated charges brought by the Russian occupation authorities. It was only five years later, in 2019, after his release from the labour camp, that Sencow was able to return to making the film. Despite the delay in bringing “Rhino” to the screen, the film has lost none of its relevance. With its key dramatic scenes set in the past, the film subtly addresses questions of justice and compassion. The director’s exceptional life story only heightens its resonance.
The film has been presented at many festivals, delighting critics and audiences alike. After screenings in the Orizzonti section of the 78th Venice International Film Festival and in the International Competition of the Warsaw Film Festival, articles about “Rhino” appeared on portals all over the world. It was covered by Reuters, U.S. News, Deadline, Cineuropa, Deutsche Welle, France24 and many others.
Below we present a few quotes from the reviews:
The crime story constructed by Ołeh Sencow is not bombastic and high-flown like “The Godfather” or “Scarface”, but more “human” – if one may put it that way – that is, marked by an austere staging of its characters.
(…) While the title character remains something of an enigma, “Rhino” is a convincing, visually inventive portrait of a peculiar and very dangerous world.
https://deadline.com/2021/09/rhino-review-venice-film-festival-oleh-sentsov-1234831032/
It would be just another simple gangster story were it not for the poetic cinematography of the film’s first chapter, the powerful performance of debutant Serhii Filimonov and the director’s decision to place Rhino’s life in the context of the unfolding social and political changes.
https://www.cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/410386/
The titular Rhino is a young man, strong and physically fit, a rare combination of strength, calm and recklessness. We first meet him on the streets of a small post-Soviet town that played a key role in shaping his character. We watch him grow up against the backdrop of the ups and downs of his family life. The subsequent events of his life follow a pattern common to the Soviet era: eat or be eaten, beat or be beaten. Brave and physically powerful, Rhino quickly climbs the ranks of the local criminal gang, soon becoming its leader. But his is not a career free of catastrophic mistakes.
Ołeh Sencow is a director, screenwriter, former political prisoner and political activist. His feature debut, “Gamer”, had its international premiere at the Rotterdam festival in 2011. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Sencow was arrested by the FSB, accused of plotting terrorist acts and secretly transferred to Moscow. Despite the lack of evidence, he was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum-security labour camp. For five years the global #FreeOlegSentsov campaign fought for his release, with the European and Polish Film Academies playing a leading role. In prison, Sencow wrote a novel and a collection of short stories, and from behind bars he also directed the film NUMERY (Berlinale Special 2020) based on his own screenplay. After five years in the camp, on 7 September 2019, he was freed in a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine. He continues to work for the release of all Ukrainian prisoners held in Russian jails.
“Rhino” was made as a Ukrainian-Polish-German co-production with the support of the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund. The Polish co-producer is Apple Film Production, the company headed by Dariusz Jabłoński, Violetta Kamińska and Izabela Wójcik. This is Apple Film’s third project connected with Ołeh Sencow.
“Rhino”
in cinemas from 10 December 2021
Cast: Serhij Filimonow, Jewhen Czernikow, Jewhen Grygorjew, Alina Zewakowa
Written and directed by: Ołeh Sencow
Cinematography: Bogumił Godfrejów PSC
Production design: Jurij Grigorowicz
Casting: Anastasiia Chorna
Costumes: Kostiantyn Kraveс
Make-up: Switłana Polikaszkina
Sound: Patrick Veigel, Michael Kaczmarek
Editing: Karolina Maciejewska
Music: Andrij Ponomariow
Producers: Denis Ivanow, Ołeh Sencow
Producers (Poland): Dariusz Jabłoński, Violetta Kamińska, Izabela Wójcik
Producers (Germany): Heino Deckert, Tina Börner
Production: Arthouse Traffic and Cry Cinema
Co-production: Apple Film Production, Ma.ja.de. Fiction
Co-financed by: Ukrainian State Film Agency, Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Eurimages, Polish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
