Sisyfos Film Production’s founder Mario Adamson first met Russian dissident filmmaker/producer Marusya Syroechkovskaya and her Ukrainian counterpart Maksym Nakonechnyi at Eurodoc a couple of years ago. The three will be reunited at the Cannes Film Festival where Syroechkovskaya’s doc How to Save a Dead Friend is screening at the sidebar ACID, and Nakonechnyi’s feature debut Butterfly Vision at Un Certain Regard.

“They know each other well,” said Adamson about the two filmmakers in their early 30s, whose destinies have been dramatically impacted by the current Russian government’s autocrat regime. “Their films are of course connected, as they offer different perspectives on what’s going on in the region,” continues Adamson, himself intimately connected to war in Ukraine through his wife, a theatre costume designer of Ukrainian origin.

“I try not to be too emotional about it [war in Ukraine], but of course, I am very close to the Ukrainian community,” said Adamson who also welcomed the Cannes Film Festival’s decision to select films from Russian dissident filmmakers next to Ukrainian works.

Referring to some festivals that unlike Cannes, decided to boycott all Russian films, Adamson said: “When you take dogmatic decisions, you fall into the trap of what Putin wants, which is to divide us and create conflict,” he observed.

For the Swedish producer, what also unites Marusya Syroechkovskaya and Maksym Nakonechnyi’s films is their strong character-driven emotional stories tackling urgent topics, which is what defines Sisyfos.

“We [at Sisyfos], believe that emotional and well-told stories can help us understand the world we live in and open up new doors to worlds that lie beyond our grasp. We value stories that connect to people’s lives, evoke empathy, and inspire change,” says the company’s credo.

In Syroechkovskaya’s docu debut How to Save a Dead Friend which won a Special Mention at the Swiss festival Visions du Réel, the director has filmed her boyfriend’s gradual fall into drug addiction. her and her main protagonist epitomise the Russian millennials, muzzled by an autocratic and violent regime. The film is produced by Sisyfos Film Production and Ukraine’s Docs Vostok, in co-production with France’s Les Films du Tambour de Soie and Norway’s Folk Film. The latter company was also involved in Sisyfos' Tribeca selected doc The Scars of Ali Boulala.
How to Save a Dread Friend is being sold by Lightdox in Cannes.

Meanwhile Adamson’s co-produced Butterfly Vision is bowing at the Un Certain Regard section, and competing for a Camera d’or. Nakonechnyi’s film captures the difficult homecoming of Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance expert Lilia after months of captivity by Russian forces in the Donbas region. The woman struggles to resume her life with her family, as the trauma of captivity continues to torment her. Yet she refuses to identify as a victim.

The film was majority-produced by Kyiv-based production company Tabor, co-founded by Nakonechnyi. Wild Bunch is handling sales.

According to Adamson, Nakonechnyi who is still living in Ukraine to document the war with his Tabor collective filmmaking colleagues, will be attending Cannes.

Syroechkovskaya as well, now living outside Russia, between the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile Adamson is preparing his biggest film to date: the documentary Motherland by Belarusian journalist/filmmaker Hanna Badziaka and Ukraine-Belarusian filmmaker/producer Alexander Mihalkovich.

The two filmmakers bring the frontline home as they expose the consequences of staying silent against a tide of autocratic violence within the military system that bleeds over to the streets of Belarus.

The film which just received support from the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Co-production Fund, is co-produced with Ukraine’s Voka Films and Norway’s Folk Film, with support from the Swedish Film Institute, Zefyr Media Fund, Fritt Ord in Norway, IDFA Bertha Fund, B2BDOC, IMS, Viewfinder and the Nipkow Programme.

Filming is due to start this fall.