City of Owls

On her last evening before leaving, Vera puts her younger sister to bed. To hide the real reason for her departure, she tells her a fairy tale about a city swallowed by an eternal night. Its inhabitants gradually learn to live in the darkness and begin turning into owls. But as the story unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that Vera is not telling just an ordinary bedtime tale.

Zhenia Kazankina is a director, screenwriter, and editor, born in Moscow, Russia, in 1996. She graduated from VGIK and is currently based in Rome, Italy. Her work explores themes of adaptation, attachment, and the search for belonging, often through the lens of feminine characters and perspectives. Unfolding in a collective dimension, her stories are rooted in metaphorical concepts and personal experience, and touched with elements of mystery and fable.