Vladlena Sandu

Vladlena Olegovna Sandu (; born 17 August 1982) is a Crimea-born film director, screenwriter and theatre maker whose work explores memory, war and displacement.

After the start of the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian War in 2022, she relocated to the Netherlands and is based in Amsterdam.

Early life and education Sandu was born on 17 August 1982 in Feodosia and moved in childhood to Grozny after her parents’ divorce. She later described growing up amid the Chechen wars as formative for her work.

Career Sandu’s student works circulated on the Russian festival circuit before drawing international attention with Holy God (2016), a documentary short about three generations of women displaced from Grozny. The film screened internationally and won the Movies that Matter Award at ZagrebDox 2017. Her short Eight Images from the Life of Nastya Sokolova (2018) premiered in the 2018 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam and later received the Silver Eye Award (short documentary category) from the Institute of Documentary Film at Ji.hlava’s East Silver Market.

From 2019 to 2022, Sandu co-created and worked as screenwriter, director and creative producer on the drama series Identification, which follows a young Russian woman who converts to Islam and confronts social frictions.

In 2022, she completed the short No Nation Without Culture, which screened at goEast in 2023 and won the RheinMain Short Film Award.

Memory (2025) Sandu’s first feature-length documentary Memory received support from the Netherlands Film Fund + IDFA Bertha Fund Co-Production Scheme and was later presented as a Work-in-Progress at Visions du Réel Industry in April 2025.

The film premiered as the opening film of Giornate degli Autori at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. Damon Wise of Deadline Hollywood characterised it as a harrowing wartime memoir that fuses Sandu’s on-screen presence with stark imagery to evoke the rupture of childhood, and Elsa Keslassy of Variety described it as a personal film rooted in Sandu’s Chechen-war childhood. The film received the section’s People’s Choice Award (ex aequo).

Filmography

Diyana (2012)

Orlovs (2013)

Kira (2015)

Tamerlan’s Love (2015)

Holy God (2016)

Festivals and awards Sandu holding the 'Time of History' Special Prize obtained by Memory at the 70th Valladolid International Film Festival. Year Festival Film Award Ref 2015 Kinotavr (Short Film Competition) Kira Special Jury Diploma (for the "completeness of the artistic expression") 2015 VGIK International Student Film Festival Kira Best Director; Best Cinematography 2018 Silver Eye Awards (IDF/Ji.hlava) Eight Images from the Life of Nastya Sokolova Silver Eye Award – Best Short Documentary 2023 GoEast – RheinMain Short Film Award No Nation Without Culture Winner 2025 Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori) Memory People’s Choice Award (ex aequo)