Koka

On a coastline of the Bering Sea, boats in single file tow a whale to shore. It will soon be methodically butchered by the community where Koka, this film's eponymous hero, is growing up. Raised the hard way by a short-tempered father, the boy, who suffers from a heart defect, often escapes from the family den to smoke with his mates, play at being captain of a fishing boat rusting in the dock or race around the dirt tracks in a homemade cart pulled by his dog. In short, Koka creates his own carefree world in a place where existence equals subsistence. Aliaksandr Tsymbaliuk's camera avoids dwelling on the misery and hardship, and never intrudes into the intimacy of the protagonists. It enables them to be free, allowing the slightest gesture, the smallest game, or the simplest word to capture the affectionate bond between father and son. They flourish in the frame like spontaneous epiphanies, like a form of documentary blessing. With this very human first film, Tsymbaliuk has already established himself as a master of the portrait.
Emmanuel Chicon

Koka, 2024
Queendom, 2023