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Family Portrait in Black and White

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Original title: Family Portrait in Black and White
Year: 2011
Running time: 90 min.
Country: Canada
Director: Julia Ivanova
Screenwriter: Julia Ivanova
Cast: Documentary
Music: Boris Sichon
Cinematography: Julia Ivanova, Stanislav Shakhov
Producer: Interfilm Productions
Genre: Documentary | Adoption. Childhood
Synopsis: In a Ukrainian village, big-hearted, formidable Olga Nenya single-handedly raises 23 foster children. Sixteen are the biracial offspring of visiting African students and Ukrainian women, who, living in a country of blue-eyed blondes that’s racked with endemic racism, often see no choice but to abandon their babies. And that’s where Olga comes in.

Family Portrait in Black and White charts the rhythms of Olga’s hectic household, rife with rambunctious kids and goats. As diverse dramas unfold among the brood—a high-schooler struggling to transcend his plight through education, a boy longing to reunite with his Ugandan father, and a child courted for Italian adoption—Olga reveals herself to be loving and protective, but also narrow-minded and controlling. A product of communist ideology, she favors collective duty over individual freedom. It’s this philosophy that gives the orphans the rich sense of belonging they ache for, as well as cause for rebellion and distrust, in this lyrical, sometimes gut-wrenching tale about the meaning of “Mama,” “family,” and “nation.” (From Sundance.org)

Awards: 2011: Genie Awards. Nominated for Best Documentary

2011: Sundance Film Festival: Nominated for Jury Prize - Documentary (World Cinema)

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User history

Family Portrait in Black and White

2011

Julia Ivanova