Ukrainian director Akhtem Seitablaev wants to submit his latest war movie “The Cyborgs: Heroes Never Die” for the Academy Awards. The news came on Jan. 12. less than two weeks before Oscar nominations scheduled for Jan. 23.
“But first of all, it will be up to the Ukrainian Oscar Committee to decide on the nomination,” Seitablaev said on Channel 5.
The movie, which hit the screens across the country day after Ukraine’s Armed Forces Day on Dec. 7, won the box office in its first weekend, earning Hr 8.186 million, or almost $302,000, locally, according to the head of the Ukrainian State Film Agency Pylyp Illenko.
The movie team also announced that five hryvnias from each ticket will be donated to the families of slain defenders of the airport via Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian non-
The movie is based on true events.
Cyborgs war drama official trailer.
It tells a story of the bloody battle for Donetsk Airport, which is defended by the Ukrainian army and paramilitary forces as their last stronghold near the city.
The battle for Donetsk Airport was fought between late May 2014 and January 2015. After 242 days of solid defending against more numerous Russian-led forces, the last surviving Ukrainian combat units eventually left their positions in the air terminals, which were completely ruined after months of fierce fighting.
The story opens with a Ukrainian military convoy with volunteer soldiers setting out from their base in the village of Pisky to reinforce combat units at the airport. However, while on its way, the column of vans and armored vehicles comes under heavy shelling by combined Russia-separatists forces in the area. Only a small group of fighters – the movie’s main characters – makes it to Ukrainian stronghold.
Donetsk Airport had gained an iconic status for many Ukrainians as a symbol of die-hard resistance of the nation at war. The airport’s defenders are widely known as “Cyborgs” – a nickname that went viral on the internet after a Russian-led fighter said in an interview that Ukrainians had not been giving up their defense of the airport because they were not humans, but cyborgs.
Ukraine has been submitting films for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1997. As of 2017, 10 films have been selected to represent Ukraine in this category, and five were accepted and screened by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The first and only Ukrainian production to be nominated for an Oscar was Wartime Romance, a Russian-language production made by Odessa Film Studios, selected to represent the Soviet Union in late 1984. It received an Oscar nomination at the 1985 Academy Awards.
