Oscar 2025 to showcase Under the Volcano: Polish film portraying a Ukrainian family amid Russian invasion

The movie follows the Kovalenko family, who are on vacation in Tenerife, as they discover the start of a full-scale invasion. They go from being tourists to refugees stuck on the island.

The story is presented from the point of view of the 16-year-old daughter, Sofiia.

^{Photo: a frame from the movie "Under the Volcano"}

"The state of surprise, uncertainty, and loss intensifies family conflicts… The tape, performed in an ascetic form, touches on the most difficult topics of our time – war and migration – leaving the viewer feeling that each of us can be under a volcano that is waking up. Unresolved conflicts come to the surface. The fear the family members feel is mixed with a sense of guilt," the Polish Oscar Committee notes.

Next week, the film "Under the Volcano" will open the 49th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.

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During the meeting on September 9, the Ukrainian Oscar Committee selected the movie that will serve as Ukraine's entry for the 2025 Oscars. The chosen film was "La Palisade," a post-Soviet noir directed by Filip Sotnichenko.

Sotnichenko's movie depicts a forensic psychiatrist who is involved in investigating the murder of a police officer. The authorities are eager to solve the case before the death penalty is abolished, but the doctor is uncertain about the suspect's culpability. This unfolded in 1996, just a few months before the signing of Protocol No. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which allowed for the death penalty's abolition.

As Rubryka reported, four films participated in the national selection for the 97th Academy Award "Oscar" of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year:

• "House "Slovo." An endless novel" directed by Taras Tomenko,
• "We Were the Recruits" by Liubomyr Levytsky,
• "Peaceful People" by Oksana Karpovych.
• "La Palisade" by Filip Sotnichenko.

As reported, the Ukrainian documentary film "20 Days in Mariupol" won the "Oscar" in the "Best Feature Documentary" category.