On Wednesday, the film crew took advantage of the Venice Film Festival to walk the prestigious red carpet wearing clothes embroidered with the distances between the Lido and various locations where the Russians are holding Ukrainian prisoners.

Their document Songs of the Slowly Burning Earthdirected by Olga Żurba, had its world premiere as part of the non-competitive cycle.

Each garment, made in collaboration with Ukrainian artist and designer Alisa Liubomskaya, featured embroidery with eight names of different detention centers and their distance in kilometers from Lido. “Each of these names symbolizes the lives of thousands of Ukrainian men and women,” the team said.

“We wanted to remind people of the horrific conditions in which prisoners are held, of the unlawful trials and trumped-up charges, of the torture and deaths,” Zhurba said. “About everything that Russia, as a terrorist state, is doing with impunity to people who should never have been there. This is a huge tragedy that very few people abroad know about. Those responsible for these actions must be held accountable.”

Songs of the Slowly Burning EarthZhurba’s second feature-length documentary, is an audiovisual diary chronicling Ukraine’s involvement in the war. Filmed during the first two years of the full-scale Russian invasion.

The film is a mosaic of landscapes, people, sporadic conversations, sounds and silences, gradually revealing the tragic normalization of war in society.

Songs of the Slowly Burning Earth is produced by Daria Bassel for the Ukrainian production company Moon Man in collaboration with Anne Köhncke (Denmark), co-founder of the six-time Oscar-nominated production company Final Cut for Real (The act of killing, Escape) and Kerstin Übelacker for We Have a Plan (Sweden), ARTE France and Film i Skåne. Sales are handled by Filmmotor.

During preparations, the film crew consulted with the Center for Civil Liberties and the Headquarters Coordinating the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Clothes for the campaign were provided by Ukrainian brands Tamar Keburia, Kachorovska, Andreas Moskin, Why Me and Knitel.