ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an enthusiastic film and theatre artist, working as writer, director and producer on fiction features, documentaries, animated cartoons and theatrical performances, whose work explores the liminal human existence, social provocative questions and complex conflicts between nations and ethnics. I do not confine myself to the choice of genre and art medium, because I truly believe that the form should serve the story.

Through my own artistic method based on an analysis of biblical plots and their transformation in non-religious stories, I strive to create new outstanding artworks to evoke emotions and provoke questions about the human experience and the world we inhabit, which are truly eternal and inherently unsolvable.

I do art as I’m strongly convinced that it can change our reality.
KEY THEMES OF MY CINEMA AND THEATRE WORKS:

  1. Intercultural dialogue and ethnic conflicts
  2. Oppressive political systems, human striving for a devil power and the deep nature of human evil
  3. Post-Soviet inheritance and collective trauma
  4. Exploring the miracle and the spirituality
  5. Personal and collective guilt
~
«Acclimatization»

Feature film script, comedy, drama, adventure, 100 min.
currently under development
Written and produced by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directing by Kristina Shirinova

Eleven-year-old Azerbaijani Ayaz is grieving the death of his father, who was killed a few months ago in Nagorno-Karabakh. Trying to help her son cope, Ayaz's mother arranges their moving. In a new place Ayaz is getting involved in the anti-Armenian teen movement. Their actions threaten to unleash a conflict inside Dagestan that repeats the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

This is a story about how children are struggling to live in the world which is torn apart by constant wars. It explores also inter ethnic conflicts and how the terrible grows out of the small. The message is that family, love, and friendship are concepts that transcend nationality.

Awards


  • Pre-selected to the Hubert Bals Fund Development Scheme, the Netherlands
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«La Dauphine" ("Life and death of Lyudmila Zhivkova»)

Feature film script, drama, biography, mystery, 90 min.
currently under script development
Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directing by Maria Ivanova (Bulgaria)

Bulgaria, 1981. One of the most prominent women of the 20th century, LYUDMILA ZHIVKOVA (38), is found dead in a rich government estate. Her death is mysterious, and versions vary: from a murder ordered by the Soviet KGB to suicide, even Lyudmila's father, Bulgaria's top official, General Secretary Todor Zhivkov (70), falls under suspicion. In order to find the cause of her death, it is necessary to trace the life path of this amazing woman.

This film is an investigation of the cause-and-effect relationships of fate and the mysterious death of Lyudmila Zhivkova, whose life represented a woman's struggle against the repressive machine of the socialist government and also a conflict between spiritual and materialistic ways of human existence. This is a risky attempt to explain the emergence of political dictatorship and human evil by the example of individual personalities.
~
«Olesya’s home», 2027

Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directing by Yuliana Grimuta (Russia)
Drama, comedy, 120 min
currently under preproduction

Pretty orphanage pupil Lesya is being adopted by new parents for the third time. She is no longer ready to trust adults and is going to turn their lives into a nightmare in order to return to the orphanage to her best friend. Only she attacked the wrong people...


This project refers to a such severe social challenge as orphaned children and theirs psychological traumas in externally comedy way.


Awards


  • 43rd VGIK International Student Festival (2023)
  • 8 "Free Cinema" pitching (2024)
  • Formula of the Way Laboratory (2024)
~
«Kokice», 2025

Screenplayed by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directed by Andrew Krechetov (Serbia)
drama, 37 min.

Popcorn seller Milan forbids his son to return home if he continues to participate in political protests. When the young man really disappears, the old man goes in search of him. It's not easy to find anyone in a city on strike. So, through a series of strange encounters, Milan comes to rethink his life.

This film is about the fact that having lost the most precious thing, we do not lose the meaning of life, but find it. It also raises the issue that the political struggle against the criminal government is taking the lives of young people.

~
«At the edge», 2025

Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directed by Maria Ivanova (Bulgaria)
absurd, tragicomedy, 20 min.
currently under postproduction

A foreigner, Dragan, who moved to Russia from Serbia, is desperately trying to comprehend the mysterious Russian soul and earn the love of his new neighbors in a rented apartment, but nothing comes of it - as long as he is alive.

This project is an audacious absurdist attempt to explore the nature of xenophobia, based on Chekhov's plays and a reinterpretation of Tolstoy's philosophy and stylized as Ionesko’s dramaturgy. It also explores how difficult it is to be different in an alien environment. Sometimes only miracle can save the situation. The message of this story is that true love defeats death.

~
«Symphony of the Fear», 2026

Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Producing by Daria Kim (Russia)
Psychological horror, 18 min.
Link to the teaser

Christina (38) is the first violin in the symphony orchestra. She finds out that she is pregnant and hesitates because the baby may interfere with her career plans. The situation is complicated by the fact that the father of the unborn child, Jacob (50), is the conductor of the orchestra in which she plays. Jacob is not only a senior who is interested in the birth of his child, but also a power-hungry man. Christina finds it difficult to cope with her fear of dependence on Jacob: as the fetus develops, she becomes more and more helpless.

This is a female-visioned story about the universal fear of every human being - excessive dependence on another person, told through the optics of a violinist who became pregnant by a conductor. Pregnancy is understood here as the highest point of helplessness and dependence the Another.
~
«Orbital velocity», 2025

Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directed by Kristina Shirinova (Russia)
Mockumentary, 3 min

A young film director is adapting Chekhov's play "The Seagull". He does not suspect what grandiose consequences his free interpretation of the classics will lead to.

Awards
  • Chekhov Moscow Art Theater open-call, 2025
  • Klyuchi Film Festival (selection), 2025
~
«The Lamb», 2024

Written and co-produced by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directed by Kristina Shirinova (Russia)
Drama, comedy, 24 min
Link to the teaser

Muslimchik, an eight-year-old Avar, lives in a Dagestan village. After his father left for the war, he not only takes care of his father's flock, but also has to fight instead of his father for the preservation of their family.

This story is about how war affects the life of a small person - about what happens when a child is forced to grow up early.

Awards


  • International Festival of student and debut films "Saint Anna" ("Best Script" and "Best Film" prizes), 2025
  • Ural Shorts (Best Script, Best Cinematography), 2025
  • Kazan International Muslim Film Festival “White Bird” (selection), 2025
  • Kazan International Film Festival «Altyn Minbar» (selection), 2025
  • Short Film Days (Best film acc. to TikTok jury), 2024
  • Student Film Festival of the CIS countries «Ascent» (Audience Choice), 2024
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«Exodus», 2024

Written and co-produced by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directed by Rene Grempel (Germany)
drama, 19 min.
Link (teaser, ENG subs)

An exemplary Jewish woman, Leah, a mother of two children, tries her best to organize a family celebration of Passover. But after her husband leaves the family, she finds it beyond her strength. Daughter Rivka and son Zakhar, who are grieving their parents' divorce, stage a teenage rebellion, violating the prohibitions of the holiday. Leah is forced to choose: to remain a good mother or a good Jew.

This is a universal story about the struggle of mercy and severity in the soul of every human being. And that our loved one is more important than the ritual.

Awards


  • Best script of feature short, 42 VGIK International Student Festival (2022)
~
«Match», 2022

Co-written by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directed by Askar Anel (Kazakhstan, Russia)
black comedy, 5 min

A young damp Match is the only one who is unable to become lighted up in his world full of flaming matches, cigars, incense and aromoconuses. Match doesn't worry about it - until he falls in love with the girl of his dreams. He sets out to catch fire-even if it means becoming the new messiah of his world.

This is a film about how each of us is unique. That sometimes we are not accepted for who we are. That sometimes difficulties come in our lives when it seems to us that the whole world is against us, but there is still hope that it is in our dissimilarity, our weakness that lies the key to our self-realization, the search for our own life path and purpose.

Awards


  • Twente Short Film Festival van de Korte Film, the Netherlands, competition program, 2025
  • WG Filmfestival TIJD, the Netherlands, selection, 2025
  • 42rd VGIK International Student Festival, Russia, Best script for Animated Short, 2025
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«Communal singing», 2022

Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directed by Roman Radzilevich (Ukraine)
comedy, 14 min.
Link to the film (no subs, RUS)

The quarrelsome intellectual Avgusta (45) successfully terrorizes her neighbors in a communal apartment in order to get ready her overgrown son for a vocal competition - until a real Odessa resident Tsilya Abramovna moves in with them. Nobody will escape.

Awards


  • Shortlisted by Ural Shorts 2023
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«Loud story», 2022

Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk
Directed by Maria Senichkina (Russia)
documentary, animation 11 min
Link to the film (RUS)

This is a popular science film exploration of nodular ligament disease, told through the personal life story of Masha, who was eager to become a singer, but her dreams did not come true because of this disease. This is a story about how it is important not only find your own voice, but also not to lose it.
~
«Sleeping Beauty»

Written by Evgeniya Rudyuk

Animated short, black comedy, 9 min.
Link to the script (ENG): available upon request

The outstanding thanatocosmetologist Arkady Petrovich is so fascinated by one of his works that he involuntarily gives her his kiss. Sleeping Beauty comes to life, but Arkady is not happy about it at all.

A black comedy story that refers us in the spirit of postmodernism to the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" by Charles Perrault.
~
«Psychodrama»

TV Series, comedy, crime, drama, 8х40 min.
currently under development
Created and co-written by Evgeniya Rudyuk

Even Chekhov's gun sometimes fires live bullets: the prima of a provincial theater kills an actor right during a performance. While the theater is speculating whether she could have done it intentionally, Maya seeks a cure for her guilt in group therapy. However, the mother of the deceased is determined to put Maya behind bars at any cost—even if it means destroying the lives of innocent people.

This TV series explores guilt as a dangerous weapon of self-destruction and manipulation of others. Through its characters and their intertwined fates, the show reveals the devastating consequences of guilt—both real and imposed—and questions the boundaries of morality, justice, and human vulnerability.
~
«The Tierra del Fuego»

TV Series, animation, adventure, 12х15 min.
co-written by Evgeniya Rudyuk

Tierra del Fuego is a teen fantasy narrative that describes a closed, settled civilisation living on a volcanic island. Two friends, the loser Bazhen (15) and the lucky Peter (15), who received prophecies about their destiny in childhood, leave their native tribe to save the island from a volcanic eruption.

But on the way, they discover that their prophecies are mixed up.The loser Bazhen begins to succeed, and the favorite of the tribe, Peter, on the contrary, gets into all sorts of trouble, from which Bazhen saves him. Mutual resentment, envy, and betrayal arise between friends.

This story tells about the diversity of our world, that our strength lies in unity, and that nothing is predetermined - only we decide for ourselves what our fate will be, despite any social constructs.
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Made on
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