From BZ editors
I would like to wholeheartedly congratulate the Ukrainian director Maryna Er Gorbach, a rising star on the European film Olympus, on being awarded the BZ Culture Prize.
from dr Andriy Melnyk, LL.M., Ambassador of Ukraine
This high award is above all a particularly important recognition of the artistic work of Maryna Er Gorbach, who breaks new ground and crosses borders.
Maryna Er Gorbach will be honored on June 26th Photo: Ralf Gunther
With her globally acclaimed feature film “Klondike”, Maryna Er Gorbach vividly demonstrated, even before Russia’s large-scale aggression on February 24, 2022, that this war, which has been there since 2014 and was ignored in Europe for far too long, has been going on for a long time perfidiously led by Moscow for many years against the Ukrainian state, but also against the Ukrainian people as a cultural nation.
With this true masterpiece, the filmmaker announced a prophecy for the bloodiest war of aggression in the middle of the European continent since 1945 and warned that it should still be prevented. Unfortunately, preventive diplomacy failed.
The BZ Culture Prize is also a strong sign of Germany’s solidarity with the Ukrainians, who bravely fight day and night for their homeland, their independence and their cultural identity.
My sincere thanks also go to BZ editor-in-chief Miriam Krekel for this blue and yellow Berlin bear.
I wish Maryna Er Gorbach a lot of strength and inspiration for new exciting films and projects, so that people in Germany finally understand that Ukraine is an inseparable part of Europe’s culture and makes a major contribution to strengthening freedom.
