Darya Zhuk

The Belarus-born director Darya Zhuk started her career at HBO as a business analyst before obtaining her MFA with honors from Columbia University with a specialty in directing. Her debut feature film, "Crystal Swan," was Belarus' first entry into the Academy Award's Best Foreign Language category in 22 years.

"Crystal Swan" opened the prestigious Karlovy Vary "East of the West" competition and won many prizes, such as the Grand Prix at the Odessa Film Festival, the Grand Prix at the Tbilisi International Film Festival, and the Youth Jury Award at the Cork Film Festival, among others, before premiering in North America at Slamdance FF in 2019.

Short films Darya wrote and directed have been selected for SXSW, Tarkovsky, Atlanta, Palm Springs, Oaxaca, and Santa Fe independent film festivals, to name just a few. She received the Nick Louvel Breakthrough Filmmaker Award and the Best Female Writer-Director Award from New York Women in Film and Television in 2015.

Director, screenwriter, producer
Filmography
Little America (TV series) — Space Door episode, 33 min.

The Premise (TV series) — The Commenter episode, 31 min.

Crystal Swan, 93 min.

Like a Dream

The Real American, 12 min.

What Doesn’t Kill You, 17 min.

Eat the Tourists, 5 min.

WAX, 15 min.

Half-Life, 16 min.

The Air Inside Her, 8 min.
2022


2021


2018

2016

2015

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011
Crystal Swan
In 1990s Belarus, a wanderlusting young DJ is derailed by a typo in a forged US Visa application, forcing her to a backwater factory town where she is determined to fake her way to the American dream.

Watch in VODBLISK
online cinema:

Eat the Tourists
A tourist finds himself trapped in an awkward situation.
The Real American
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, fresh off the boat in America, an exchange student named Alya boldly faces off with cultural differences as she celebrates her 17th birthday in 1994.
The Air Inside Her
When six-year-old Katya explores the experience of death, she discovers life like she has never it seen before.