Iryna Tsilyk

Photo: courtesy of Iryna Tsilyk / Forbes Ukraine

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Iryna Tsilyk works at the intersection of literature and film, writing poetry, short fiction, and children's books while also directing documentaries and features. Her debut documentary, The Earth Is Blue as an Orange The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (2020), won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival Sundance Film Festival and screened at more than 150 festivals worldwide, including Berlinale Berlinale, IDFA IDFA, and Hot Docs. She also wrote the screenplay for Rock. Paper. Grenade Rock. Paper. Grenade and directed the film, based on the novel Who Are You? by Artem Chekh, which premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival Warsaw Film Festival. At the moment, Iryna Tsilyk is working on a feature-length animated docudramedy Red Zone which is being co-produced by Ukraine, France, and Luxembourg.

Her poetry collections Depth of Field (2016) and Thin Ice (2025) both draw on the lives of Ukrainians during the war. Since 2022, she has also written columns and essays for international outlets, including Weekendavisen Weekendavisen (Denmark), FAZ FAZ and TAZ TAZ (Germany), Republik Republik (Switzerland), Aftenposten Aftenposten (Norway), Dwutygodnik Dwutygodnik and Sestry Sestry (Poland) and many others. Two of her essays appeared in the anthology Ukraine 22 Ukraine 22 (2023), published by Penguin Random House UK.

Her earlier fiction turns to a different subject: the short story collection Red Marks on Black (2015) follows ordinary residents of Kyiv whose everyday lives rarely get told. Birthmarks (2012) traces inherited bonds between mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters, wives and husbands. She is also the author of the novel The Day After Yesterday (2008), the poetry collections Qi (2007) and The Road Beyond The Road Beyond (an English-language volume paired with photographs by Ruslan Hrushchak, 2022), and several books for children.

Her poems and short stories have been translated into multiple languages and presented at international festivals and book fairs, including Poesiefestival Berlin, the Vilenica International Literary Festival, and the Frankfurt, Leipzig, Prague, Vienna, and Vilnius book fairs, as well as at literary events in the United States, including at Columbia University's Harriman Institute Columbia University's Harriman Institute (2024) and Princeton University Princeton University (2023).

UKRAINE 30 Stories of Independence. Iryna Tsilyk

Ukrainian Institute Ukrainian Institute

IMBd

Iryna Tsilyk Iryna Tsilyk

BBC

The Documentary Podcast. Filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk: Animating Ukraine's War The Documentary Podcast. Filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk: Animating Ukraine's War

Iryna Tsilyk is one of Ukraine’s best known young documentary makers. She made her name following the lives of soldiers, female paramedics and families living on the frontline in East Ukraine after the region was taken over by Moscow-backed separatists. However after Russia’s full-scale invasion brought the war to Iryna’s home city of Kyiv, she decided she could no longer stay behind the camera. So, in her current project, The Red Zone, Iryna is turning the lens on herself and her family.

Golden Globes

Podcast: Ukrainian Documentarian Iryna Tsilyk – “It seems like we are inside of some nightmare” Podcast: Ukrainian Documentarian Iryna Tsilyk – “It seems like we are inside of some nightmare”

As the world holds its breath watching Russia continue its assault on Ukraine, Ukrainian filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk talks to the Golden Globes Around the World podcast series about her gut-wrenching experience of discovering life imitating art.

The Guardian

‘I want space for jokes’: how film-maker Iryna Tsilyk captures surreal life in Ukraine ‘I want space for jokes’: how film-maker Iryna Tsilyk captures surreal life in Ukraine

Author: Charlotte Higgins

Audiences in flak jackets queued to hear the poet and director on a tour of pounded cities. She talks about depicting life during war, from air raid alerts to hesitating between pinot or zinfandel in the supermarket.

Forum for Ukrainian Studies

Interview with Iryna Tsilyk | Losing intellectuals on the front lines is a disaster for Ukrainian culture today Interview with Iryna Tsilyk | Losing intellectuals on the front lines is a disaster for Ukrainian culture today

By Oleksandr Pankieiev

MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture

Frontline: Iryna Tsilyk on filmmaking during the Russo-Ukrainian war Frontline: Iryna Tsilyk on filmmaking during the Russo-Ukrainian war

By Kingsley Marshall

Eurozine

No fiction on massacre. Pen Ukraine conversations No fiction on massacre. Pen Ukraine conversations

Ukrainian author and filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk talked with Agnieszka Holland, Polish director and screenwriter, for PEN Ukraine’s #DialoguesOnWar. This is an edited transcription of key moments from their conversation.

On further note: The Earth Is Blue as an Orange The Earth Is Blue as an Orange is studied within the French school curriculum. It features in France's recommended programmes for viewing world cinema and is now watched every year by French secondary-school students.