Natalia & Sieva met in Berlin, a hub for artists from all over the world. Their first encounter began with their collaboration on the documentary Postcards From Ukraine. Since then, they have continued to work together, expanding their skills in storytelling, cinematography, editing and colour. In 2016, they founded Blitzar Media and work on feature-length documentaries, 16mm experimental films and crowdfunding campaigns. They are also known for their trailers for art galleries, theatre or dance performances, etc. Their style is based on a complementary approach, where the feminine and the masculine go hand in hand to make the subjects more complex and captivating.
Natalia Fentisova was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1986. She got her first degree in the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan in painting. After several years working as a painter she transitioned into video art and film. At that time she traveled to Berlin, where she got involved in several artistic movements. One of them was an analog film lab LaborBerlin. Natalia continued her studies in the experimental film class of Heinz Emigholz at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin. Natalia’s early work consists of film essays, experimental films, and performances she explored the phenomenological approach. The topics included psychological and physical transformations, and questions of cultural, social, and gender identities. From the year 2014, Natalia started her collaboration with Sieva on documentaries on social and political issues and subcultures. The latest documentary with the working title What Matters talks about the ecological problems in the little town in the middle of pristine nature in Kyrgyzstan.
Sieva Diamantakos was born in Rome and grew up in a coastal village near Genoa (Liguria). He began making films while studying at the University of Bologna. His major was film criticism with an essay on the hero’s journey in the two choral films Short Cuts by Robert Altman and Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson.
After moving to Genoa, he became a member of the electronic band port-royal and was the group’s official video maker and VJ. Inspired by the group’s tours of Eastern Europe, he moved to Berlin and found a way to work between the German capital and Kyiv. There he shot his first film Postcards from Ukraine about the beginning of the crisis between Ukraine and Russia. His second film Peilhorn – Dein Drama in V Akten about an illegal club in Berlin was produced entirely by Sieva and was recently released on youtube. And They Will Talk About Us is his third film as a director. Sieva’s films always have a social approach, in which political and economic dynamics play the most important role. From there, the works expand and touch on the existential level. The direction is minimalist in terms of the means used, but often poetic. The texts alternate between tragic moments and others with lighter tones.
Postcards From Ukraine (directed by Sieva Diamantakos; edited by Natalia Fentisova) 2016 Mimesi’S Culture, Hildebrandt Films, Paul Thiltgs Distributions.
Selected @ Perso Film Festival (2016; Perugia, Italy); Molodist Film Festival (2016; Kyiv, Ukraine); Winner @ AmiiWork Fest (2017; Vilnius, Lituania)
Peilhorn – Dein Drama in V Akten (directed by Sieva Diamantakos; edited by Natalia Fentisova) 2022, Blitzar Media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KZICA3HwwQ
Atlas (directed by Ioannis Katseris, Camera and editing by Sieva Diamantakos) 2022 Blitzar Media
Selected @ Chania International Film Festival (2023; Chania, Greece), Doc Fest (2023; Chalkida, Greece)
And They Will Talk About Us (directed by Sieva Diamantakos, written by Sieva Diamantakos and Natalia Fentisova) 2022 Directory Films, Blitzar Media, Fore Films, Kino Artil and supported by Ukrainian Film Foundation
Selected @ Mykolaichuk-open (2022, Chernivtsi, Ukraine), ArtDocFest (2024; Riga, Latvia), Bergamo Film Meeting (2024; Bergamo, Italy)
What Matters (directed by Natalia Fentisova, written by Sieva Diamantakos and Natalia Fentisova) in process supported by the Finnish Film Foundation
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