Elza Gubanova (Dir.) and Anastasiia Zakhilko (Prod.) after awards ceremony © Photo DOK Leipzig

The 2026 Ohrfilm Award was presented to the film BLACK WATERS (Directed by: Elza Gubanova) as part of the Short n’ Sweet section at DOK Leipzig on 28 October 2026.

 

Black Waters

By Elza Gubanova | Ukraine | 20 min.

Director’s Note: I was born and raised in

Odesa, a port city on the Black Sea, a land-

scape central to my artistic practice. Since

Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the

Black Sea has become a war zone. Explo-

sions, attacks on coastal infrastructure, war-

ships and mines affect marine ecosystems,

while restricted access and fragmented

monitoring make it difficult to scientifically

document environmental damage.

Black Waters uses artistic research to ex-

plore what conventional war documen-

tation leaves unseen: the slow effects of

environmental destruction and chronic

wartime stress.

Filmed on the Ukrainian Black Sea coast,

the film moves between documentary

observation, testimony and poetic in-

scription. Macro and telephoto lenses

transform organisms, bodies and distant

spaces, while staged images move towards

fiction. Testimony, field notes and dreams

merge in a voice-over, blurring human and

non-human bodies.

© Text & Photo: DOK Leipzig 2026