Anastasiia Bortual: Screenwriter, director, cinematographer.

„Before the start of the war, I received an education as a director, I was engaged in filming my diploma film, and worked in film production. When the war began, we were forced to flee from Ukraine to Poland. At first I thought I would shoot there through the prism of my own life and lives of loved ones that had changed so much. I started volunteering and the camera faded into the background, it was difficult for me to film myself and share something of what I had to live and see. Every day the atmosphere grew stronger. Conversations started saying Poland would be bombed next. My mother found an announcement in Facebook that Iceland was accepting refugees. It was a step into the unknown, we didn't know a single person in Iceland. But at that moment we were scared and thought only about our safety. Of course, we imagined that we would arrive in Reykjavik, it would be cold there, but very beautiful. But we ended up in Ásbrú, we were one of the first families to find ourselves in this refugee home.This former military base was "unfrozen" a few days before our arrival. But very quickly it began to fill with life and I picked up the camera again. The camera has become my continuation and assistant in observing new life and new people.The reference could be filming in the style of cinéma vérité. Handheld camera, uncomfortable shooting, unvarnished. The director is very close, but the goal is to get the feeling that there is no camera and no director. Existence and living a segment of life with the characters, but not allowed to interfere in any way. The viewer may get the impression that the characters are filming each other. Much attention will be given to sound and realism.“

Saint-Petersburg State University of Film and Television 2020 – 2022

Film and television direction

Lenfilm Studio 2021-2022 Assistant Casting Director

Andrey Tarkovsky Film Festival "Mirror"Summer 2021-2022 Documentary campus, director

The film production company „3XMEDIA” Saint-Petersburg 2020 – 2021 Assistant Director Boris Nemtsov Foundation 2018-2019 Editor 

„Temporary Shelter“  in development 2022 – 2023