The Slavic Firebird, a variation of the Greek Phoenix, is bound to cycles of burning and rebirth—now reclaimed through a queer lens, interwoven with two Ukrainian queer archives from the mid-90s to early 2000s. Haunted by Soviet ghosts, Ania, a fiery-haired girl, moves through love and desire, setting herself ablaze in moments of passion. From an electrified first kiss to underground queer spaces, her flames reveal both tenderness and destruction. As the past tightens its grip, fire spreads, threatening to consume everything. Yet within the ashes, a new future fights to emerge.
Anastazja Naumenko is a visual artist and director, whose main investigation focuses on intertwinement and co-relations between real and fictional worlds, hence most of their works are a mix of documentary and fiction. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Animation Department in 2019 and after a few years’ break, she continued her studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. She recently finished her second film Can you hear me?, which is followed by Square Eyes and currently waiting for a premiere. Her previous film We hope you won’t need to come back was screened at over 25 festivals, including the Warsaw Film Festival, FilmFest Dresden, London International Animation Festival, Kaboom Animation Festival, and won an Audience Award at REX Animation Film Festival and Best Thematic Film Award at Animation Bucharest International Film Festival. Previously she was also a participant in the Visegrád in Short(s) program for animation and film directors.
Maks Piłasiewicz has been working for over 10 years in various areas of the film industry – from film festivals, through one of the leading European sales agents (Films Boutique), in the implementation and production of a training program for film talents (directors and screenwriters), to work in film development and production at one of the most important animation studios in Poland (Animoon). He has been working at Animoon for almost 4 years, where he served in different positions and worked on different formats of animation films.
Maks Piłasiewicz graduated in Cultural Studies (Visual Anthropology) from Warsaw University. He has been working for over 10 years in various areas of the film industry – from film festivals, through one of the leading European sales agents (Films Boutique), in the implementation and production of a training program for film talents (directors and screenwriters). He is a programmer for the Iceland Documentary Film Festival and ŻUBROFFKA ISFF, and a coordinator for MDAG Industry at Millennium Docs Against Gravity. Since 2020, he has been a production manager and supervising producer at Animoon (Poland), overseeing international co-productions. In 2023, he founded his own film and event production company.