
Crystal Swan
Torn between her drab post-Communist homeland and her glamorous fantasies of America, the ambitious young heroine of Crystal Swan clearly shares some autobiographical parallels with the film’s writer-director Darya Zhuk. Born and raised in the former Soviet republic of Belarus but now based in Brooklyn, Zhuk is a Harvard and Columbia graduate whose debut feature has just world-premiered at the Karlovy Vary film festival in the East of the West competition strand.
Not without flaws but still impressively assured for a first feature, Crystal Swan boasts a luminous lead performance from rising Russian screen queen Alina Nasibullina, plus a sparky, sardonic script by Zhuk and Helga Laudauer. An international co-production with multiple U.S. partners in the mix, including Vice Films, this bittersweet coming-of-age comedy should grab further festival play based on its mildly exotic setting and timely immigration subplot. Already named as the first Belarussian Oscar submission in 22 years, Zhuk’s lively indie charmer also has enough universal resonance for niche theatrical potential.
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Director: Darya Zhuk
Actors: Alina Nasibullina, Anastasia Garvey, Ilya Kapanets, Ivan Mulin, Lyudmila Razumova, Svetlana Anikey, Yuriy Borisov