La Palisiada
Directed by Philip Sotnychenko.
Crime Drama Recommended Age 18+
100 minutes.
Followed by a discussion with Natalka Semotiuk (moderator), Anatoliy Gruzd, Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management and the Director of Research at the Social Media Lab at TMU, and Sana Shakhmuradova (La Palisiada actor and artist)
Presented by the Toronto Ukrainian Film Festival and St. Volodymyr Institute.
This captivating crime drama recently received 13 nominations and five awards, including Best Feature Film at the Torino Film Festival. The film centres around two friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist, as they investigate a colleague’s murder in 1996 Ukraine. Not only a gripping story, it is a commentary on Ukraine’s first years of independence, the post-Soviet continuum, and its transition into the present. *Notes: English subtitles, Russian and Ukrainian languages spoken, some raw and violent scenes.
In light of the upheaval that surrounded “Russians at War” being screened at tiff, we have decided to host a re-screening of La Palisiada, an award-winning Ukrainian film that was shown at this year’s Toronto Ukrainian Film Festival.
La Palisada is a very powerful, dark and beautifully made film that is headed to this year’s Oscars! It touches on the topic of propaganda and how it veils itself.
Moderator: Natalie Semotiuk
Natalie Semotiuk is a seasoned Ukrainian-Canadian filmmaker from Toronto with over 15 years in film and theatre. She studied at the New York Film Academy, University of Southern California (BA, 20th Century History), and York University (MFA in Theatre). As a producer for TIFF's Rising Stars Programme (2017-2019), she helped spotlight talent like Devery Jacobs, Shamier Anderson, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley. Natalie’s diverse roles include jurying for the JUNO Awards (2019) Comedy Album of the Year, co-writing and starring in Heartbeat and Other Ways to Say I Love You which premiered at the 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival, and casting and production roles on acclaimed shorts, feature films, and TV. She founded her production company Courageous Heart Productions in 2018. Her projects range from directing The Profiles Project with CreativesDB and directing and starring in the comedy short film Over the Mün in 2024. Currently, Natalie is directing her first feature, a documentary on Solomea Krushelnytska, and creating content for the independent production company and streaming platform HighballTV, all while continuing to push creative boundaries in the arts.
Panelist: Anatoliy Gruzd
Anatoliy Gruzd is a Professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management and the Director of Research at the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. As a computational social science researcher, he investigates how social media transforms how people and organizations communicate, collaborate, and share information and misinformation. His expertise lies in studying online communities and social networks and in developing new computational methods and tools to analyze public discourse across various domains. Most recently, he has been examining the spread of pro-Kremlin narratives, propaganda and disinformation related to the Russia-Ukraine war. Anatoliy's innovative approach to studying social media has led him to be named a Canada Research Chair in 2015 and inducted into the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in 2017.
Panelist: Sana Shahmuradova
Born in 1996 in Odesa, Ukraine, Sana Shakhmuradova spent her formative years in the village in Podillia. Following her family's immigration to Toronto, Canada in 2013, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from York University in 2020.
Drawn back to her roots, Sana returned to Kyiv to pursue her artistic practice, where her work explores intergenerational trauma through the lens of dreams and memory, particularly in response to Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine. Her distinctive multimedia approach brings raw emotional depth to portrayals of resilience and cultural identity.
In 2023, she expanded her creative repertoire with her acting debut as Aisel Sabitova in Philip Sotnichenko's acclaimed post-Soviet noir film "La Palisiada." Sana currently lives and works in Kyiv, Ukraine.