Olga - Red Cross Fundraiser
The reality of war has prompted us to try and help those in Ukraine. CFF are covering all the licencing costs so that 100% of box office takings will be donated to our selected charity, the Irish Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
Saturday 2nd April, 8pm. Clones Courthouse, Admission €10
Olga (Anastasia Budiashkina) is a talented 15-year-old gymnast with a bright future that might take her all the way to the Olympics. Given the chance to train in Switzerland, she leaves Kiev just as the Ukraine experiences unprecedented political turmoil. Ruthlessly focused on her training, Olga is left a distant bystander as her mother, an investigative journalist, challenges a brutal regime.
Elie Grappe's impressive debut is a subtle, tensely handled tale of exile reflecting the pressures on young athletes, the clash between the personal and the political, and a young woman's search for who she is and what she is prepared to sacrifice.
Director: Elie Grappe
Cast: Anastasia Budiashkina, Sabrina Rubtsova, Caterina Barloggio
FILM INFO: 85 minutes, France, Switzerland, Ukraine, 2021, Cert 15A
Festivals:
Semaine de la Critique / Critics’ Week, Cannes Film Festival 2021
Karlovy Vary international Film Festival 2021
Brussels International Film Festival 2021
Gijón International Film Festival 2021
AWARDS
Winner - SACD Prize, Semaine de la Critique / Critics’ Week, Cannes Film Festival 2021
Winner - Audience Award, Brussels International Film Festival 2021
Winner - Best Actress, Gijón International Film Festival 2021
“★ ★ ★ ★ Anastasia Budiashkina is excellent as a young athlete exiled during the 2014 revolution in this moving drama released to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees.” - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“★ ★ ★ ★ It’s a compelling, smartly performed movie, with Mikhina mostly low-key and deliberately sullen until the fireworks are finally, and deftly, deployed.” - Kevin Maher, The Times