Serhiy Mykhalchuk

Camera operator

July 13, 1972 (53 years)

Lutsk, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]

Biography

Serhiy Yevhenovych Mykhalchuk is a Ukrainian cinematographer. Honored Artist of Ukraine (2014). Winner of the 2019 Golden Dziga National Film Award in the category "Best Cinematography" (Wild Field). Cavalier of the Order of Merit, 3rd class (2021).

Filmography

6.1

My Step Brother Frankenstein

One day Pavel, a young man wounded in the war, suddenly shows up at the home of a Moscow scientist name Krymov and claims to be his illegitimate son. Krymov denies this, but out of compassion he helps arrange a necessary operation for Pavel. Then certain things begin happening which suggest to Krymov that he may have a psychologically unstable fellow on his hands.

7.0

Dovbush

In the early eighteenth century, foreign rule means dark times for the Hutsuls of the Carpathians. The two Dovbush brothers become opryshkos - mountain outlaws. But the two brothers become enemies - one cares only about money, the other - Oleksa - fights for his people. The Carpathians are convulsed with a wave of uprisings. The aristocracy uses its military might to try to kill Dovbush and destroy his legend. But Dovbush outwits them. The desperate lords devise a devious plan and attack the invincible outlaw's Achilles heel - his love for his childhood sweetheart, Marichka. Who will be the assassin to attack the Opryshko whose immense strength and bravery inspired folk tales? Will the lords' treacherous plan destroy the hero before he can lead his people to freedom?

5.7

The Lover

This is a remarkably subtle film–a character study that focuses on Mitya’s attempts to cope with each new startling phase of discovery. At first he mourns for his dead wife, but then he discovers that he didn’t really know her.

6.1

The Bolshoi

Young and extremely talented dancer Yulya Olshanskaya from a small mining town draws a “happy ticket”: she is noticed by a former ballet dancer Pototsky and he promises her a future of great ballerina, worthy of the main stage of the country. However, in order to become a diamond, anyone, even the most outstanding brilliant, needs to be cut, and the way to the legendary stage of The Bolshoi Theatre for Yulya lies through the walls of the ballet school, where the more capricious teacher Galina Mikhailovna Beletskaya takes custody of the rebellious provincial. Turning into a prima will require incredible self-denial, and Yulya herself will have to make sure that the big ballet is not only the whiteness of the packs, the gold of the boxes and the slip of silk ribbons. But no obstacles will stop the one who has the big dream.

5.9

Lucky Girl

Nina is a successful TV star, but her life changes when she is diagnosed with cancer. Facing a personal crisis, she has to confront her deepest fears.

5.8

PG 16...

Kir, Leya, Dasha and Max are student. Almost every experience is for a first time to them - first love, first disappointment, first betrayal...

8.0

V. Silvestrov

There is a rumor in the Kyiv musical community: once upon a time, in private conversation, Queen Elizabeth II mentioned Valentyn Silvestrov as one of her favorite composers of the modern age. The Royal Press Office hasn’t confirmed it, so no one knows for sure. But the stature of Silvestrov justifies this rumor. Highly respected by the world’s best music professionals, he remains a mystery for a wide audience. The documentary is far from a traditional biopic about a prominent person. It is an observation, a confession and, most of all, a story of great talent set against the backdrop of uncertain times.

6.2

Light Up!

A woman who works as a warden in a prison secretly aspires to be a singer. When an inmate posts a video of her singing online, she becomes a sensation and her desire to follow her passion intensifies.

7.8

The Guide

American boy Peter and blind minstrel Ivan are thrown together by fate amidst the turbulent mid-30s Soviet Ukraine.

5.2

Las Meninas

This film is about what the routine of everyday life can do to the human mind and psyche. It also reflects on the importance of the choices we make and how limited these choices are in the first place. The plot evolves around a family of four. They live in the suburbs, in a strange villa that appears, through a complex game of mirrors, to be more like a piece of installation art than a real house. The main character, who hardly appears on screen, is the son, a man in his thirties. Suffering from asthma and eczema since childhood, he uses his condition to manipulate his parents and his sister. Thus the existence of the terrorized family turns into an endless ritual of attempting to satisfy his whims, and always on the alert for yet another one of his “health crises”. Las Meninas resembles the scattered pieces of a puzzle. It is up to the viewer to assemble them in order to form his very own picture – something that makes the film itself personal and unique.

4.8

Illusion of Fear

Story of a successful businessman, who has to protect his business in difficult conditions. He gets entrapped into the net of law enforcement structures and after arrest the protagonist starts to notice weird things: some of his interlocutors appear to be not real persons, but phantoms, created by his consciousness. Fantomness, dematerialization of things that are obvious for common sense brings the author to the next stage of thinking - that the illusion of fear is also fruit of our imagination.

5.1

Match

Based on the true story of the "death match" where the Soviet team "Start" scored its second victory over the German team «Flakelf» on August 9, 1942

5.4

Parajanov

Film director Sergei Parajanov creates brilliant films. His nonconformist behavior conflicts with Soviet System. He is committed to prison for being eccentric. His indestructible love for beauty allows him to withstand the years of imprisonment, isolation and oblivion.

6.1

Under Electric Clouds

Russia 2017. The world could be on the verge of a great war. People are anxious that things could fall apart. Evolving around an unfinished building, a diverse group of outsiders struggle to find their place in this rapidly changing society, making up the mosaic of existence that is life itself…

N/A

The Raid

1932. Western Ukraine. The fighters of an underground Ukrainian organization conduct a revolutionary action against the government. Contrary to their plans, it turns into a bloody slaughter. Now the choice of young patriots is small: death or immortality.

N/A

Moskvich, My Love

Hamo, an old farmer lives with his wife in a remote village in the mountains of Armenia. The money their son send them from Russia just allows them to survive. But Hamo nourishes a dream of acquiring a Moskvitch, the most beautiful car in the world, the one that had promised the Soviet power and that he never had.

4.5

Merry-Go-Round

Somnambulistic circus Ribera&Velazquez welcomes everyone to the show, where shadows, that escaped the platonic cave, turn the carousel in the foggy catacombs.

1.0

Unreal Love

A successful careerist is in the love triangle between her shy colleague and high-profile boss. Thinking that she can't get involved with married men anymore Elya tries online dating and falls in love with some mysterious dude in the Internet.

N/A

The Second Wind

The story of four Ukrainian soldiers with prosthetic limbs and a female soldier who survived injuries on the front line. They reached the summit of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and unfurled the Ukrainian flag at an altitude of 5,895 meters, reminding the whole world that true height lies in strength of spirit.

6.5

Mamay

Mamay draws on traditional Ukranian and Tatar folktales for its Romeo and Juliet-like love story and parable about chivalry and the struggle for freedom. Hundreds of years ago, in the wild steppes of Crimea that form an uneasy border between East and West, Europe and Asia, nomad and farmer, the proud Cossack Mamay falls in love with the Tatar beauty Omai. The title, like the storyline, holds a variety of different meanings taken from different cultures. In Turkic languages, it means "no one," but it was also the name of a famous Mongol conqueror, the great grandson of Ghengis-Khan. In Persian legends, mamay literally means "the spirit of the steppes. "