BA FILM STUDIES
Fiction Film Workshop with Marie-Elsa Sgualdo – 2026
with Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
The 2026 fiction film workshop for 2nd year students was lead by swiss director Marie-Elsa Sgualdo.
In a hotel room, a Ukrainian filmmaker in exile has his isolation disrupted by the unexpected return of his former partner, who is about to leave for Ukraine to be with her ailing father.
Nostos is a film born from forced displacement. Through an autofictional approach, it explores what remains when the idea of “home” collapses. Rooted in a lived experience of exile, the project reaches into broader questions: memory, absence, the fragile ties we try to hold across distance. The film uses archive images from Ukraine, silent gestures, and minimal space to evoke a state of suspension. The hotel room becomes a mental zone. This is not a war film, nor a personal diary — but an attempt to give form to disconnection, to waiting, and to a bond that persists despite everything.