Vasyl is a former ski jumper who now works as a coach at a ski jumping school for children in the Carpathians. He is a tough, hardened man at the end of his career. Vasyl is a loner, and sport is his whole life. He really wants his students to have the opportunity to reach the top of their sports careers, so he is trying to rebuild an old ski jump at his own expense.
Zhenya is Vasyl’s trainee. For five years, he has been putting a lot of effort into making her a champion. With her success, his dream comes true. As the girl advances in her career and grows up, her relationship with her coach gradually changes. One day, she decides to leave sport and test herself in other areas of life. Vasyl’s work no longer seems to make sense. But he finds the strength to start all over again.
CREW:
Director: Max Rudenko
Producer: Viktoriia Slopitska, Max Rudenko
Cinematographer: Max Rudenko, Oleksandr Techynskyi
Sound: Dmytro Skrypka
Production
Paradox Film / «Парадокс Філм»
Ukrainian State Film Agency / Державне агентство України з питань кіно
Director
Max Rudenko
Max Rudenko was born in the city of Mykolaiv, and studied photography and fine arts. In 2009 he graduated from a documentary film school. In 2015 he completed his higher education as a cinematographer. Maksym has worked on films made under the auspices of the Ukrainian State Film Agency as a director and cinematographer. He is a member of the Ukrainian Guild of Directors and the Ukrainian Film Academy. In 2020 he created his own film company Paradox Film, focused on documentary production. In 2019, in collaboration with the Mystetskyi Arsenal, Maksym participated as a producer and co-author of the idea in the creation of the multimedia exhibition Overcoming Gravity, dedicated to the work of the writer Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit.Selected Filmography
Elevation (2024), A Portrait on the Background of Mountains (2019), Between a Wolf and a Dog (2008) 
