A shortlisted Oscar nominee and winner of awards at IDFA, Gothenburg, Thessaloniki and many other international film festivals, The Distant Barking of Dogs by Simon Lereng Wilmont will be demonstrated during this year’s festival, too.

The film by the Danish director, filmed on the frontline in Eastern Ukraine, follows 10-year-old Oleh, who lives with his beloved grandmother in a village of Hnutove in Donetsk Region. The film records how the child’s natural struggle to learn about the world is intertwined with the dangers and challenges of war. The filmmaker notes that the most important thing for him was to tell the story of a child’s life in the conflict zone, about how the child seeks to find peace.

The film was a real hit at last year’s Docudays UA festival and received the Student Jury Award. In the past year, The Distant Barking of Dogs has won awards from more than twenty film festivals across the world — in the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, the US, Spain, and was nominated in the best documentary category by the European Film Academy.

The film will be screened on March 24 at 1:50 p.m. in the Zhovten Cinema. After the screening, the audience will have an opportunity to talk to the director. This year, Simon Lereng Wilmont will also judge the Ukrainian competition and the international short competition as a member of the festival jury.

You can buy tickets and see the schedule of all the other screenings here.

Credit photo: A still from The Distant Barking of Dogs