Under the Volcano (Polish: Pod wulkanem) is a 2024 Polish drama film directed by Damian Kocur. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 8 September 2024. It was selected as Poland's submission for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
Contents
Premise
A Ukrainian family on vacation in Tenerife learns that they cannot return home due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Cast
Sofiia Berezovska as Sofiia Kovalenko, a 16-year-old Ukrainian girl
Roman Lutskyi as Roman Kovalenko, Sofiia's father
Anastasiia Karpenko as Anastasiia Kovalenko, Sofiia's stepmother
Fedir Pugachov as Fedir Kovalenko, Sofiia's younger brother
Release
Salaud Morisset acquired international sales rights to the film in August 2024. The trailer was released on 7 September 2024.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 8 September 2024. It will also be screened at the 2024 Polish Film Festival as the festival's opening film.
Reception
Jared Mobarak of The Film Stage gave the film a grade of B+, writing that "[Damian] Kocur has given form to the purgatory of survival in times of horror." David Katz of Cineuropa wrote, "From an immediately pressurised opening, Under the Volcano drifts into a pleasing and paradoxically hypnotic kind of stasis, shot with oft-deteriorated available light and in shallow focus with long lenses – not quite a 'hangout' movie, and more about biding time in urban loneliness...."
The film has received mixed reviews in Poland. Filmweb assigned the film a score of 6.3 out of 10 based on 33 critic ratings.