Memory

Vladlena Sandu

Six-year-old Vladlena moves from Crimea to Grozny following her parents' divorce, unaware that war will soon consume her childhood. As the Soviet Union collapses, the Chechen Republic fractures. Her Russian-speaking friends flee while deported Chechens return, reclaiming their homeland. Violence engulfs the city - neighbors are murdered, her family is targeted, and Grozny becomes a battlefield. After four years of war, her mother is gravely wounded, and an armed attack forces Vladlena to flee, becoming a displaced person in Russia. In this autobiographical poetic hybrid film, Vladlena revisits her traumatic childhood memories to confront a haunting question: How can the cycle of violence that shapes children and is passed through generations be broken?

France, the Netherlands 2025, '98

DIRECTOR: Vladlena Sandu

SCENARIO: Vladlena Sandu

CAMERA: Liza Popova

MONTAGE: Vladlena Sandu

MUSIC: Philippe Grivel

PRODUCERS: Yanna Buryak

PRODUCTION: Mimesis, Limitless, Revolver Amsterdam

Vladlena Sandu

Vladlena Sandu was born in her father’s homeland of Crimea in 1982. After her parents divorced, she moved to her mother’s native city of Grozny in the Chechen Republic. She lived through four years of war as a child and teenager. In 1998 she emigrated to mainland Russia and received the status of an Internally Displaced Person. In 2016 she graduated from the VGIK, where she studied film directing on a BA course led by Alexei Uchitel. In 2019 she graduated from Boris Yukhananov’s Studio of Independent Direction. In March 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine she became a refugee for the second time. Today she lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Her films have most notably participated in official selections at film festivals such as Berlinale, Rotterdam, Series Mania, Leipzig Dok, DocLisboa, Movies That Matter and have won awards at festivals such as goEast, ZagrebDox, Golden Apricot, VGIK ISFF and obtained the Silver Eye Award by the Institute of Documentary Film. Her first feature film MEMORY was the opening film of the Giornate degli Autori at the 82nd Venice Internatio