Released in Ukrainian cinemas in the early days of February, the movie by Vlad Klimchuk is a warm rom-com showing Kyiv in all its beauty.
Best Weekend was released in Ukrainian cinemas on February 2nd, 2022. Twenty-two days before the full scale Russian invasion. Directed by Vlad Klimchuck (who helmed the first two chapters of Crazy Wedding), the film follows four different characters and their respective stories as they get to Kyiv in the hours leading up to the world famous ATLAS WEEKEND music festival.
Best Weekend is a Ukrainian Rom-Com and a love letter to Kyiv. And it is now available on the Filmmakers for Ukraine charity screenings.
“Now I start to cry – says Film UA Group producer Anna Eliseeva interviewed by Pierpaolo Festa for CREW UNITED– Because it hurts me…. (I think about) our time in Kyiv, with my children and all the families. It was so beautiful and still is. Our film clearly shows a city with a special spirit where young people come to find love, like they are on a special mission. What I believe is that Kyiv will keep standing and will recover”.
Director Vlad Klimchuck adds: “Best Weekend is my love letter to Kyiv. I wanted to show local people and youngsters from different regions of Ukraine coming and gathering in the capital. The movie is not a drama where everything is grey. The pace is pretty fast and it shows Kyiv in a bright sunny lovely way”.
Recalling those early days of February 2022, Eliseeva says: “Ours was the last film released before the war. Actually it was a bit crazy, because in late January and at the beginning of February people started to talk about war. It was all over the news. At the same time, there was a huge wave of COVID with 40.000 cases per day. So, it was crazy challenging for us to release the film. But we did it and took the risk”.
Best Weekend follows a guy from Germany becoming a volunteer at the Atlas Weekend festival in order to win the heart of one of the main organizers of the event. A group of young men trying to have a legendary stag party, but ending up arguing like children. A girl from Odessa looking for her rocker father she hasn’t seen and idealized for a long 10 years. And a career-oriented girl from Lviv arriving to town for the most important job interview of her life. All of them will have to face the craziest day of their lives.
“We really appreciate that you take our film – says Eliseeva – (This is) a comedy. And we want to show the world who Ukrainians are. We love to have a great time, share laughs and caring. It’s not only dramas and tragedies and it’s very important that people know us and see who we are. Best Weekend can show this”.
The producer also talks about her crew, revealing how some facilities at Film UA Group welcomed people in danger
“We had this studio that our costume department rebuilt as a bomb shelter. It welcomed many people from our district. Even a baby was born in that shelter! Our crew was amazing. Some of them still work in Kyiv on documentaries. Tim Avramchuk, our DOP, worked a lot on short films during the war. And our line producer helped a lot of foreign journalists as they were making their reports and documentaries. He is still in Kyiv. Some people left. But all of us are trying to stay in our profession, do our best and hope we can go back to shoot in Ukraine as soon as possible”.
Filmmakers for Ukraine would like to thank Anna Eliseeva, the whole Film UA Group, director Vlad Klimchuck and its crew. And actor Hans Jörg Berchtold, the first person approaching us about Best Weekend.
FILMMAKERS FOR UKRAINE
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Best Weekend, by Vlad Klimchuk (2022)
Synopsis:
A guy from Germany becomes a volunteer at a festival to make the girl organizing this event fall in love with him, but instead he loses the foreign headliner of Atlas Weekend. The guys from Kryvyi Rih have a legendary stag party, but argue like children and fight like adults. A young girl from Odesa is looking for her rocker father she hasn’t seen and idealized for a long 10 years. A career-oriented girl from Lviv arrives for the most important job interview of her life, but her younger brother disrupts absolutely all her plans.
This will be the craziest trip for our characters and their Best Weekend!
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