When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea

Day labourers smoke while looking at the Black Sea, workmen stretch out on the roof of the damaged cathedral, a boy manoeuvres us through the sunny streets and courtyards of Odesa while he dreams of a medium-size chocolate cake for his birthday and a job on a cruise ship. Yet this cheerful everyday life is tempered by a feeling of unease, for the many gaps – the holes in the historical facades, the absence of family members or the darkness caused by the power blackouts – render the omnipresence of the war far more shocking than its deceptively far-off rumblings.

The memories, experiences and dreams of the astounding people that Eva Neymann shows on her extended, attentive expedition through the harbour city become a means of survival. A refugee from Abkhazia, a nomadic clergyman, a widow who takes care of street cats, a single father whose sons live on different sides of the front, a Shoah survivor and many more give us seldom insights into the reality of a place surrounded by myths, a poetic space full of resilient humanity. (Irina Bondas)

Eva Neymann, born in 1974 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, studied law in Marburg and film directing at the DFFB Berlin. Following her successful short film Freeze, Thaw (2001), she directed several documentaries showcased at international film festivals. In 2007, her feature debut At the River premiered at the IFFR Rotterdam. Her second feature, House with a Turret (2012), was part of the East of the West competition at Karlovy Vary, where her third feature, Song of Songs, also premiered in 2015. Her documentary Pryvoz had its world premiere at Doclisboa in 2021. Neymann lives and works in Berlin.

Director Eva Neymann. Cinematography Eva Neymann, Saša Orešković. Editing Pavel Zalesow. Sound Design Walentin Pinchuk, Sasha Valent. Producer Kirill Krasovski. Co-Producer Eva Neymann. Commissioning Editor Rolf Bergmann. Production company Blue Monticola Film (Magdeburg, Germany). With Fadey Fadeev, Madona Hupenia, Igor Vlasenko, Nina Ulchik, Valeriy Bassel, Irina Babanina, Solomon Nuzhyn, Dmytro Shulyakov.

Films: 2001: Samri Otomri / Freeze, Thaw (short film). 2004: Vse po-staromu / Everything as Usual. 2005: Uvidet more / Seeing the Sea (short film). 2007: Puty Gospodny / Ways of God, U reki / By the River. 2012: Dom s bashenkoy / The House with a Turret. 2015: Pesn pesney / Song of Songs. 2021: Pryvoz. 2025: When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea.