A great honor for a Swiss film. From “Ostrov – The Lost Island” at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto Svetlana Rodina And Laurent Stop Won international competition. Hot Docs is considered the largest documentary film festival in North America. The film’s world premiere was at an international competition at the Visions du Rail in Nyon.

Jury with Sheila Navins By MTV Network, Japanese filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda And member of the Oscar Academy Tony Kamau The “Ostrov” described is “a truly powerful cinematographic experience that reflects the everyday lives of people in Russia”.

In the middle of the Caspian Sea, on the deserted island of Ostrov, a handful of people live without roads, electricity, or work, abandoned by the Russian state after the fall of the Soviet Union. Caviar fishing used to be the center of the island’s economy, now it is illegal. Nevertheless, a fisherman regularly goes to sea to support his family, and although he has already been jailed twice for poaching, he is convinced that he is Putin One day he will get rid of his misery.

As the Toronto winning film, “Ostrov” will automatically be admitted to the 2022 Oscar race. The producer of the film is Burn Company Doklab. The documentary was produced in co-production with SRF and funded by the Federal Culture Office, Bern Film Funding, Suisimage, Zurich Film Foundation and various others.

Svetlana Rodina has so far earned a name for herself as a presenter and journalist, especially in Russia. The Swiss Laurent Stoop works as a cameraman all over the world. He used to take a lot of photos in Russia for the Zurich photo agency Lucat. For example, he was also a representative photographer for the ICRC in Tajikistan and in the Caucasus and as a documentary filmmaker for SRF and France 2.