Borscht

When Vasya tries to follow her Russian grandmother’s Borscht recipe, her ancestors - from Ukrainian grandpa to Polish aunt - rise from the soup up in arms. 

Fiction

Team

Vika Evdokimenko, Writer/Director

Vika is a BAFTA-Nominated British filmmaker with Jewish-Ukrainian roots. She was born in the USSR during the perestroika. But as her popstar mother and physicist father fled for the West, she spent her early years as an immigrant in Northern Ireland. She graduated from Cambridge University and attended the NYU Grad Film program where she was mentored by Rebecca Miller and Spike Lee. Her commercial work has been nominated for the AICP and Porsche Advertising Awards and her shorts have been screened at over 50 film festivals worldwide. Her short Aamir, shot by Robbie Ryan, was nominated for a BAFTA. Her latest short I Don’t Need Adult Conversation that explores the shadow side of motherhood which remains taboo in our culture, was one of Doc Society’s #MadeofTruth grantees. Vika is a lecturer at the University of London, a Yaddo Colony fellow and a member of the British Academy. With Oliver she is the founder of ÄnfänTérrible, a production company that aims to speak truth to power and tell stories which inspire meaningful change.  She is currently developing feature film The Reunion which explores conflicting East-European identities.

Naomi Wallwork, Producer

Naomi is a New Zealand-Samoan producer now based in the UK. She initially trained as a lawyer and has worked in the UK and New Zealand screen industries for over 17 years in production and business affairs roles. She has produced theatre, short films and feature documentary Yellow is Forbidden, which premiered at Tribeca in 2018 (where it was a nominee for Best Documentary Feature) and was New Zealand’s foreign language Oscar submission. Over the last seven years she has worked on film and television projects with New Zealand and UK writers, including short film My Eyes Are Up Here, which received BFI NETWORK and BBC Film funding. The film premiered at BFI London Film Festival in 2022 and so far has been selected for 36 film festivals (10 of which are Academy-affiliated) including Tribeca and Sundance London. Her feature film project Standing Up, written by award-winning NZ comedian Abby Howells, has received development funding from the NZ Film Commission. Naomi was a participant on Inside Pictures in 2017/18 and also a participant on the BFI’s Insight Emerging Producer course in 2023.  Naomi and Vika are also collaborating on Vika’s debut feature film The Reunion written by Oliver Shuster.