Avitaminosis
dir. KATERYNA RUZHYNA
DUTCH PREMIERE
While dealing with a precarious job in a fraudulent call centre, a young filmmaker decides to move in an attempt to search for healing from the frustration.
The unfavourable situation of the labour market during the pandemic pushes Kateryna to work in a fraudulent call centre that sells vitamins that promise “magical” success to his consumers. While this helped to survive financially, months of isolation, irritated customers and frustration took her into a vitamin deficiency, so-called avitaminosis. The film is a journey into fragility and the search for healing and love in an increasingly suffocating world for young generations.
SHOWTIMES
Saturday, 25 November – 11:30 | Special Feature: New Talents Competition 1 with Big Phat Party, Hope Hotel Phantom, The Trip & Until All Is Resolved
– Special Guests: directors Rimantas Oičenka, Bojan Stojcic, Kateryna Ruzhyna, Marija Georgiev
Sunday, 26 November – 14:15 | Special Feature: New Talents Competition 1 with Special Guests
Saturday, 25 November – 14:00 | Triple Feature: Ukraine/Mostar Spotlight with Deserters & Waking up in Silence
AVITAMINOZ | 2023 | 26 min | Ukraine, Czech Republic
| PRODUCTION | Kateryna Ruzhyna |
| SCREENPLAY | Kateryna Ruzhyna |
| CINEMATOGRAPHY | Kateryna Ruzhyna |
| EDITING | Kateryna Ruzhyna, Anna Belova, Maxim Smirnov |
| SOUND | Maks Kara |
| LANGUAGE | Czech, Russian |
| SUBTITLES | English |
FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION)
DocLisboa International Film Festival, 2023 – Official Selection | Ji.hlava Industry Awards 2022 – Silver Eye Award for the best short film of the East Silver Market
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Like the people from my generation, I face the consequences of the turbulent times we live in. The labour crisis caused by Covid, the artificiality of the self-caused by social media and the total uncertainty created by capitalism. Being Ukrainian, a “third country national”, I experienced a collapse of personal illusions about progressive Europe as well. Hoping to get a stable job in a new country, I found myself in a fraudulent call centre. This contradiction seemed very ironic to me, because while I was selling vitamins with a promising “magical” effect, I was in a state of vitamin deficiency (avitaminosis). This frustration and emotional anemia nowadays are almost a basic characteristic for people of my generation. The pressure of the “success society”, however, imposes on us an artificial and hypocritical self-representation. Vulnerability, which is the key point of the film, is my way of protesting against this and showing that being humane is not about being a beautiful picture.
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Kateryna Ruzhyna (Zaporizhzhia, 1995). Ukrainian filmmaker based in Czech Republic. She graduated in History of Arts at Charles University and also studied Theory of Art at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Since 2020 she has participated in short films as a set and costume designer. Currently, she works for a “dok.incubator” workshop as a Production Manager. “Avitaminosis” (2023) is her debut short film.