Viktor
Olivier Sarbil / Denmark, Ukraine, France & United States / 2024 / 89 min
A deaf war photographer defends his country against invasion with the camera as a weapon. A visionary film from Ukraine with a subjective sound design by the team behind 'Sound of Metal'.
With his wild black beard and glowing eyes, Viktor is like a figure from an ancient legend in the middle of a chaotic reality. A silent man who swears by samurai philosophy and the noble military spirit instilled in him by his late father.
He lives with his mother in Kharkiv, right up against the Russian border, and when the Russians attack Ukraine, his greatest desire is to defend his country. But Viktor lost his hearing at the age of five and cannot become a soldier. Instead he chooses his black and white camera as a weapon and becomes a volunteer photographer for the local army.
Director Olivier Sarbil is an eminent cinematographer and war photographer, and suffers from hearing loss himself. While ‘Viktor’ may be one of the most arrestingly photographed films of the year, the sound is as much a part of the experience as the black and white images. With a sound design by the Oscar-winning team behind ‘The Sound of Metal’, it’s a film we experience through Viktor’s subjective vision of a world suddenly thrown into violence and chaos.
The film will be screening with open captions.