Locarno International CompetitionLGBTQ+Love/RomanceComing of AgeHistory/War
Love in Stever’s films is often precarious. While her earlier films placed middleaged women in such relationships, her new film puts a young queer couple to the test. Oleh undergoes a gender transition despite Olya’s objections, and the two begin living as a heterosexual couple. In 2022, as the war in Ukraine escalates and Oleh becomes subject to conscription, tensions between them intensify. Amid a situation in which terms like ‘gender identity disorder’ and ‘gender dysphoria’ collide head-on with the war unfolding before them, how can the couple make it through this crisis? Both the director and screenwriter have had similar experiences themselves, and the film was shot under difficult wartime conditions, with air-raid sirens sounding, lending it a profound sense of authenticity. Stever always ends her films by looking at characters who have arrived at a different place. The aching poignancy of the ending, reminiscent of her earlier film Grand Jeté, makes it difficult to regain one’s composure.
Isabelle Stever was born in Munich, Germany in 1963. She studied mathematics at the Technical University of Berlin before going on to study film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). Her graduation film, Erste Ehe (2003), earned recognition with the First Steps Award for Best Feature Film, and her debut feature, Gisela (2005), was invited to Locarno′s Filmmakers of the Present section. She went on to direct Blessed Events (2011) and The Weather Inside (2016), which were invited to major festivals worldwide including Berlin, Toronto, and Busan, while also serving as a jury member for the Berlinale Shorts competition and Kyiv′s Sunny Bunny LGBTQIA+ Film Festival. Made in collaboration with her wife, Ukrainian screenwriter and novelist Anna Melikova, Grand Jeté (2022) drew considerable attention when it screened in the Panorama section at the Berlinale. Their second collaboration and Stever′s latest film, I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming, tells the story of a Ukrainian queer couple searching for their identities amid war, and had its world premiere to critical acclaim in the International Competition at the 2026 Locarno Film Festival.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
