Klondike

Play trailer

1:19

Klondike

2023

1h 40m

Drama

War

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

98%

Tomatometer

40 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

July 2014. Expectant parents Irka and Tolik live in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, disputed territory in the early days of the Donbas war. Their nervous anticipation of their first child's birth is violently disrupted as the vicinal crash of flight MH17 elevates the forbidding tension enveloping their village. The looming wreckage of the downed airliner and an incoming parade of mourners emphasize the surreal trauma of the moment. As Tolik's separatist friends expect him to join their efforts, Irka's brother is enraged by suspicions that the couple has betrayed Ukraine. Irka refuses to be evacuated even as the village gets captured by armed forces, and she tries to make peace between her husband and brother by asking them to repair their bombed house.

Critics Consensus

Klondike offers a bleak portrait of a war-torn Ukrainian village with the mordant wit of someone who understands that for civilians, the mundanities of life must go on.

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Leslie Felperin

Guardian

10/03/2023

4/5

The film as a whole is a powerful statement that lingers in the mind long after the final credits roll.

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Katie Walsh

Los Angeles Times

08/09/2023

""Klondike" is certainly not an easy watch, but it is a profound one — a film that feels both prescient and retrospective about Ukraine, locked in what seems a never-ending existential conflict with its neighbor."

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Jordan Mintzer

The Hollywood Reporter

08/04/2023

An uncompromising and unsettling war story.

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Joan Amenn

AWFJ.org

12/06/2023

A gut punch of a film and deserves this recognition. A stunning work of life lived during war and the consequences that always fall on women to bear.

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Stephanie Bunbury

Deadline Hollywood Daily

10/21/2023

None of this is easy viewing, but Klondike is compelling in its very conviction. It speaks to the integrity of a filmmaker reaching for a deeper truth through fiction -- or a fictionalized reality, more accurately.

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Mina Takla

AwardsWatch

08/21/2023

B

[Klondike] delivers a powerful, unflinching look at the life of a family whose every existence is shattered by the 2014 Russian-Ukrainian border conflict.

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Dick N

@RT63863207 03/09/2024

I have watched quite a few Ukrainian and Russian movies in the last few years and even if this is interesting it did have some in my opinion weak parts, It is still good but it is not the best one i've seen.

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Maryna Er Gorbach

Director

Oksana Cherkashyna

Irka

Sergey Shadrin

Tolik

Oleg Shcherbina

Yaryk

Oleg Shevchuk

Sanya

Artur Aramyan

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Klondike: Trailer 1

1:19

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Synopsis

July 2014. Expectant parents Irka and Tolik live in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, disputed territory in the early days of the Donbas war. Their nervous anticipation of their first child's birth is violently disrupted as the vicinal crash of flight MH17 elevates the forbidding tension enveloping their village. The looming wreckage of the downed airliner and an incoming parade of mourners emphasize the surreal trauma of the moment. As Tolik's separatist friends expect him to join their efforts, Irka's brother is enraged by suspicions that the couple has betrayed Ukraine. Irka refuses to be evacuated even as the village gets captured by armed forces, and she tries to make peace between her husband and brother by asking them to repair their bombed house.

Director: Maryna Er Gorbach
Producer: Maryna Er Gorbach, Mehmet Bahadir Er, Sviatoslav Bulakovskyi
Screenwriter: Maryna Er Gorbach
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Production Co: Protim Video Production, Kedr Film
Genre: Drama, War
Original Language: Ukrainian
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 4, 2023, Limited
Runtime: 1h 40m