#PrisonersVoice at the goEast Film Festival

A documentary film, created within the Internews Ukraine project #PrisonersVoice, gained the Honorable Mention of the Open Frame Award at the international goEast Film Festival.

#PrisonersVoice film by Nikita Bogdanov tells the stories of former Kremlin’s prisoners: Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, and Volodymyr Balukh, who have overcome the path from imprisonment to return home. The film continues a self-titled augmented reality (AR) application and informs the international community on illegally imprisoned Ukrainians in Russia. Through VR technology, all viewers can feel the experience of those people and get acquainted with the repressive policy of Russia.

"We hope that this initiative will inspire many artists working in creative industries. So that they will create new ideas and explain the challenges Ukraine faces in unconventional ways. They also will be able to tell about our success stories despite all of the problems," Internews Ukraine program director Andriy Kulakov noted during the presentation of the #PrisonersVoice mobile app.

The goEast Film Festival has been held in Wiesbaden, Germany, since 2001. Every year, directors from Central and Eastern Europe present feature, documentary, and short films there.

Open Frame Award is a young film prize awarded to experimental films using 360° VR technologies. Nominees and festival guests meet in the VRChat, Caligari FilmBühne VR, and GoEast VRoof Top Lounge virtual rooms to share their works.