Timestamp

by MariannKateryna Gornostai

Keeping schools open in Ukraine is an attempt to recreate at least some of the normal life they had before the war — until February 24, 2022 (and in some regions even earlier, in 2014). Without interviews, narration and reenactments, TIMESTAMP provides an insight into how the war is affecting the daily lives of students and teachers. The film has a mosaic-like structure: it explores how a school functions in-person and online in these terrible times, both on and off the frontline, how day-to-day life is intertwined with constant danger.

  • Kateryna Gornostai was born in Lutsk in 1989. She graduated with a degree in biology and later studied journalism at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 2012-2013,

    Kateryna studied documentary filmmaking at Marina Razbezhkina’s School of Documentary Films and Theater. She returned to Kyiv during the Revolution of Dignity to film the events. Later, she started exploring narrative and hybrid forms of filmmaking. STOP-ZEMLIA, director’s narrative feature debut, premiered in the Generation 14plus 2021 at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival and received the Crystal Bear Award from the Youth Jury.

    She lives and works in Kyiv, and teaches film directing.

  • Year: 2025

    Country: Ukraine, Luxembourg, Netherlands, France

    Runtime: 125 min

    Color: Color

    Language: Ukrainian

    Subtitles: English

    Sound: 5.1

  • Director: KATERYNA GORNOSTAI

    Editor: NIKON ROMANCHENKO

    Cinematographer: OLEKSANDR ROSHCHYN

    Music composer: ALEXEY SHMURAK

    Sound: PAVLO MELNYK, MYKHAILO ZAKUTSKY, LODE WOLTERSOM, ARTEM KOSYNSKYI

  • Berlin International Film Festival - Competition

    New Directors New Films

    San Francisco International Film Festival

    Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

    IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival

    DocsBarcelona  New Horizons International Film Festival

    Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

  • “A beautifully observed Ukrainian doc on the perils and pleasures of schooltime in wartime. Timestamp confirms Gornostai as a naturally empathetic and insightful chronicler of youth...”

    – Variety

  • “There can’t possibly be a more timely film in the Berlinale lineup this year than Kateryna Gornostai’s Timestamp… An extraordinary deep-cover documentary about the effects of war in everyday Ukraine…”

    — Deadline

  • “A powerful, fractured portrait of school days in Ukraine… An impressive and timely picture that should spark plenty of interest among distributors and could figure in awards conversations going forward…”

    —Screen International

  • “Signals the emergence of a truly remarkable filmmaker.”

    —Luc Dardenne, 2XCannes Palme d’Or winning director (Rosetta, L’Enfant)