Online Q&A with Ukrainian film director Roman Bondarchuk and producer Dar’ya Averchenko

Roman Bondarchuk has directed short films, documentaries, music videos and the feature film Volcano (2018), which premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, screened at more than 50 festivals worldwide, and won 12 awards, including the Shevchenko National Prize — the highest state prize of Ukraine for works of culture and the arts. Roman's feature-length documentary Ukrainian Sheriffs won several important awards, including the Special Jury Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2015, and was selected as the Ukrainian submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Roman also works as Art Director of the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival and has been a member of the selection committee for the Ukrainian submissions to the Academy Awards since 2019. His second feature film The Editorial Office premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2024.

Dar'ya studied journalism at Kyiv International University and the Free University of Berlin and has worked for print media and TV. In 2007 she (with Roman Bondarchuk) shot her first documentary, Radunytsya, and switched to filmmaking and scriptwriting. She is a founder of South Films, a production company for documentaries and feature films. Since 2008 Dar'ya has played a critical role in Ukraine's documentary industry as a driving force behind IDFF Docudays UA, a festival highlighting human rights films. She serves on the selection committee and is Head of the Communication Department. She has also worked as Head of the Ukrainian branch of the educational channel Da Vinci. Dar'ya's credits include the feature films Volcano (2018) and Dixie Land (2016), as well as the award-winning documentaries Euromaidan. Rough Cut (2014) and Ukrainian Sheriffs (2015). For the latter, Dar'ya worked in Hollywood on the campaign for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. She has also produced short films on social and cultural topics. Currently, Dar'ya is working on the documentary Ukraine Is Not So Far Away, which will be her directorial debut.