This film is not about the revolution that changed Ukraine this winter. Not exactly. It rather shows a universal pattern of particular kind of uprisings – those ones that end with bloodshed. At first, the noble endeavor for freedom collides with the dark force of repressive rulers. Then eventually, after much confusion and chaos, the righteous anger of people changes to pure outrage. And when the first casualties on both sides fall, no matter how black and white it seems from outside, the edge between good and bad blurs when one looks from the epicenter of a battle. And finally, all things ablaze.

Direction: Aleksey Solodunov, Dmitry Stoykov, Oleksandr Techynskyi

Production: Yulia Serdyukova

Cinematography: Oleksandr Techynskyi, Aleksey Solodunov, Dmitry Stoykov

Editing: Marina Maykovskaya, Aleksey Solodunov

Sound: Oleg Golovoshkin

Original Score: Anton Baibakov

Original Title: ВСЕ ПАЛАЄ

Original Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

Film Production Country: Ukraine

Website: www.allthingsablaze.com

Social Media: www.facebook.com/allthingsablaze

Statement of the Director/s
The recent Ukrainian revolution proved to be unique in many ways. Long months of thousands of people standing stubbornly in the snow. Long months in which fellow citizens of all social backgrounds supported each other with unprecedented gestures of care such as sharing food, warmth and medical assistance for free. Long months of unbelievable patience and dignity.
However, the Ukrainian experience also proved that something in the core of most of revolutions is ultimately the same. From the very beginning, the mainly peaceful protesters tried to prevent any manifestations of violence. The longer this protest lasted, the harder it was to keep up. On one hand, the surreal carnival atmosphere of the Maidan became more and more lightheaded with every small victory. On the other hand, the immensely cynical and cruel government of gangsters carried on devising even meaner methods to fight against its own people. Step by step, all this led to lots of incidents that looked like a senseless farce. That eventually resulted in total distrust and chaos. Until one day the heady air of what was still a peaceful confrontation exploded into violence – a violence that seemed to have broken free from the darkest depths of human nature. The subsequent events recalled a snowball of fire that unavoidably led to a tragedy, even though nobody expected the scale of it – over a hundred people killed, thousands injured, and many others still listed as missing.
They say that the Ukrainian nation was reborn in this revolution. And so, that the sacrifice of the Heavenly Hundred (as those slaughtered in the clashes are called), and the whole bloody epiphany of the last month of that winter was not in vain. We, the authors of this film, do not know if this is true or not. We are still very close to the moment when we were standing in the middle of that fire, and wondered what those people who were shot or burnt or beaten to death would have replied to this if they could speak. We are still numb ourselves. The only thing we can do now is to show in details what we have seen with our own eyes at the epicenter of the fight – with all our unspoken questions which have no answers, not cutting out anything strange or inexplicable (as if there had ever been anything different), not turning our cameras away, either from something ridiculously beautiful, equally ugly or deafeningly dreadful that happened in front of them.

Biography of the Director/s
Oleksandr Techynskyi – director on set, DoP, postproduction director

Born in 1979 in Dnipropetrovsk.
Spent childhood in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic in the North-East of Russia.
In 1999 graduated from Dnipropetrovsk Medical College, then worked as the medical assistant in a psychiatric emergency team.
In 2001 has left medicine and started to work as a freelance photographer.
Since 2005 has worked at the Kommersant-Ukraine daily newspaper.
Since that time until now he also constantly cooperates with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany).
In 2010 has left the Kommersant and focused on his own documentary projects, including photography and film. That year, together with Yulia Serdyukova, has founded Honest Fish Documentary Stories – an independent production specializing on producing documentary films and videos. His debut film, the 35 minutes documentary Sirs and Misters, was in the International Competition at the DOK Leipzig 2014.
All Things Ablaze is the first full-legnth film of Oleksandr.

Aleksey Solodunov – director on set, DoP, co-editor

Born in 1985 in Kyiv.
Worked as a staff photographer in the newspapers The Business Capital, The Capital News, The Capital, and in the news agency "PhotoLenta" (Ukraine).
Cooperated with news agencies Reuters, EPA (European Press Photo Agency), WHO (World Health Organization), with the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper, and such magazines as Forbes, Focus, News.Reporter (Ukraine), and Ogoniok (Russia).
In 2010, made his debut in filmmaking as a second cameraman for Sirs and Misters documentary. After that he continued his filmmaking experience as a founder and main performer of the Ukrainian Video Reportage group that creates short news videos (see https://vimeo.com/channels/156519).
All Things Ablaze is the first work of Aleksey as a co-director.

Dmitry Stoykov – director on set, DoP

Born in 1982 in Kyiv.
Worked as a photographer with Gazata 24 and Kommersant-Ukraine newspapers, also Chas.UA, Profile, Focus, and Vesti.Reporter magazines (Ukraine). Cooperated as a photographer and video reporter with foreign media: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Zeit (Germany), ProSport (Russia), Vice News (UK).
All Things Ablaze is the first work of Aleksey as a co-director.

Awards Won
MDR Film Prize for the best Eastern European documentary at DOK Leipzig 2015

World Sales:
Journeyman Pictures
Emma Simpson
4-6 High Street, Thames Ditton
London, KT7 0RY, United Kingdom
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: 442083984616
Website: http://journeyman.tv/