Toronto International Film Festival 2024, BFI London Film Festival 2024
At the foot of Mount Teide on the Spanish island of Tenerife, a Ukrainian family of four including father Roman, stepmother Anastasiia, teenage daughter Sofiia, and young Fedir are on vacation. Enjoying their final beach day, they are blissfully unaware that, soon, their return flight to Kyiv will be cancelled in the wake of escalating tensions with Russia. From one day to the next, they are no longer tourists but refugees – trapped on a paradisiacal island. Showing us the effects of war without featuring any battle scenes, Under The Volcano is an expertly crafted portrait of a family coping with events out of their control.
Damian Kocur is a writer, director, and cinematographer who was born in Katowice, Poland. His credits as a director include the short films Lesson (13), The Return (16), and As It Was (23), and the feature Bread and Salt (22). Under the Volcano (24) is his second feature film.
Salaud Morisset