Ukraine, Latvia, Germany, Qatar

Synopsis

THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP takes the audience on a powerful, visually arresting journey through humanity’s endless cycle of war and peace. The film follows 20-year-old Andriy Suleyman as he tries to secure a sustainable future while navigating the human toll of armed conflict. From the Syrian civil war to strife in Ukraine, Andriy’s existence is framed by the seemingly eternal flow of life and death.

Director's Statement

This is not my first film about war. The psychology of armed conflict has fascinated me for a long time. Why is the fate of our species so intertwined with the drive toward aggression? Why do people admire military parades, but at the same time they are afraid of war? They want freedom and are ready to fight for it, but they are afraid of dying or losing their loved ones. In this film, I’m observing Andriy Suleyman’s big family who were spread around the world because of the war. Part of them strives to escape the war, but another part dives straight into the conflict. These contrasts show us our world like a boiling point where war and peace are mixed, love and war are celebrating their parades, and couldn’t exist without each other. In the middle of this, Andriy Suleyman is trying to find his balance and way in his life.

Visually, THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP relies heavily on static imagery, and the film is shot entirely in black and white. The absence of color erases the geographical identity of space, as we move between peaceful and military scenes, and between different country locations. We start from arial shots in which we couldn’t even recognize what planet it is. The first episode will open the grey zone for us, the zone between two military forces. From this point, we are starting our journey through our world. At the beginning, we don’t understand exactly who is the main character of the film, the camera is looking for the protagonist among different people until we find Andriy Suleyman and his family. We rely on visual rhymes to heighten this ambiguity, showing congruity and contradiction between images of military machinery and Red Cross humanitarian convoys, national dance in Ukraine and Kurdistan, parades of soldiers and Gay pride in Germany.

The film is divided into 10 parts, marked by the Arabic numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0, from 0 to 0. This is supposed to emphasize the cycling of such things as war and peace, destroying and rebuilding, life and death. The flow of the water is our main metaphor and rhyme in the film and a lot of scenes are connected with water. Our film is divided into two worlds: the private story of Suleyman’s family and the metaphorical background of the world. These worlds are going in parallel and in every scene they are coming together, strengthening each other. The final scene emphasizes the primary meaning of the film. We see Syrian refugees in Germany, who are learning a new language. After that our camera observes the big crowd of the people on the streets which starts to mix with different people from different places, refugees with soldiers, Ukrainian dancers with Kurdish. Following this, all these flows of people are mixing into one. The war and peace, love and hate, as well as life and death couldn’t exist without each other and actually create our world where we are living.

Director's Biography

Alina Gorlova is a director and film editor. Born and raised in Ukraine, she graduated from Karpenko-Kary Kyiv National University of Theatre, Film & Television. In addition to her focus as a documentary director, Alina is also experienced in making fiction shorts, and social and commercial ads. In 2016, she completed her first feature-length documentary, KHOLODNY YAR. INTRO, which screened at the Odessa IFF (Ukraine) and Artdocfest (Moscow, Russia). Her second documentary, NO OBVIOUS SIGNS, tells the story of a female Ukrainian soldier who undergoes rehabilitation for post-traumatic stress. The film has won multiple awards, including the MDR Film Award for Outstanding Eastern European Movie at DokLeipzig 2018. Alina was a 2019 Berlinale Talents participant.

FILMOGRAPHY:
2020 - THIS RAIN WILL NEVER STOP, documentary
2018 - NO OBVIOUS SIGNS, documentary
2017 - INVISIBLE BATTALION, short documentary
2016 - KHOLODNY YAR. INTRO, documentary
2014 - BABUSHKA, short
2012 - THE FIRST STEP IN THE CLOUDS, short
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Alina Gorlova

Written by: Alina Gorlova, Maksym Nakonechnyi

Produced by: Maksym Nakonechnyi, Ilona Bicevska, Patrick Hamm

Cinematography: Vyacheslav Tsvetkov

Editing: Olha Zhurba, Simon Mozgovyi, Alina Gorlova

Original Score: Goran Gora, Serge Synthkey

Sound: Vasyl Yavtushenko

Nominations and Awards

  • Documentary Selection 2021