Oleg Sentsov will present his new film "Real" in June at a festival in the Czech Republic

The organizers of the 58th International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary published on May 28 the list of films participating in the competition. Among them is the documentary film "Real" - a new work by Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, he has been serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This was reported by the Vinegret telegram channel.

Real has not yet been shown publicly. At the festival, the film will be presented in the Special Screenings section with nine other films, six of which are Czech.

In the film’s festival card, Oleg Sentsov is listed as “a famous film director, civil activist, former Kremlin prisoner, Sakharov Prize laureate, Ukrainian army soldier.” The brief description of the film says that during one of the assaults, Sentsov’s combat vehicle was hit by enemy artillery. From a nearby trench, Sentsov tried by radio to organize the evacuation of some of his soldiers. The operation was called "Real", and the film received the same name.

Oleg Sentsov may come to the premiere if his commanders grant him leave. The film "Real" is a joint production of Ukraine and Croatia. The creation of the film was supported by the European Fund for Solidarity with Ukrainian Films, the Documenting Ukraine project of the Vienna Institute for the Humanities (IWM), as well as the FILMBOOST program of the German film academy Deutsche Filmakademie.

The Karlovy Vary Film Festival will take place from June 28 to July 6, 2024.

• In the spring of 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, Oleg Sentsov was detained by Russian law enforcement agencies in Crimea on suspicion of terrorism. In August 2015, he was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security colony on charges of organizing a sabotage group of the Right Sector and carrying out terrorist attacks in Crimea. Sentsov did not plead guilty to the crimes charged against him, stated that torture was used against him and called the case political and fabricated. A number of international human rights and film organizations came out in support of him. In May 2018, Sentsov went on an indefinite hunger strike; this caused a strong response in the media and social networks. In October of the same year, Sentsov stopped his hunger strike, and on September 7, 2019, he was released as part of the exchange of detainees between Russia and Ukraine and returned to Ukraine.
• After his release, the premiere of Sentsov’s film “Rhinoceros” took place in 2022. After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, he joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces and took part in hostilities.