MEMORY

Vladlena* Sandu was born in her father’s homeland of Crimea in 1982. After her parents divorced, she moved to her mother’s native city of Grozny in the Chechen Republic. She lived through six years of war as a child and teenager. In 1998 she emigrated to mainland Russia and received the status of an Internally Displaced Person.

* The name ‘Vladlena’ is a name invented during Soviet times, to honor the Soviet Union’s chief ideologist, Vladimir Lenin. The word is essentially a portmanteau of VLADimir and LENin, with an ‘a’ added to the end, to form the female version of the name. It was given to her by her father, who rebelled against Soviet ideology. 

In 2016 she graduated from the VGIK, where she studied film directing on a BA course led by Alexei Uchitel. In 2019 she graduated from Boris Yukhananov’s Studio of Independent Direction. In March 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine she became a refugee for the second time. Today she lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Her films have most notably participated in official selections at film festivals such as Berlinale, Rotterdam, Series Mania, Leipzig Dok, DocLisboa, Movies That Matter and  have won awards at festivals such as goEast,  ZagrebDox, Golden Apricot, VGIK ISFF and obtained the Silver Eye Award by the Institute of Documentary Film. 

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FILMOGRAPHY

2022 No Nation Without Culture / documentary short film
2022 Identification / TV Series
2018 Eight Images From The Life Of Nastya Sokolova / documentary short film
2016 Holy God / documentary short film
2015 Tamerlan’s Love / documentary short film
2015 Kira​ / fiction short film
2014 Orlovi / documentary short film
2012 Diana / documentary short film

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THEATRE

2025 Transposition  – Premiere at Amsterdam Fringe
2024 Extremist Alice – Amsterdam Fringe
2023 The Rainbow Cinema – Best of Amsterdam Fringe

Vladlena, the director and protagonist of Memory, is both a storyteller and a survivor. Having lived through the Chechen War — a conflict officially framed by the Russian government as a "counter-terrorist operation" — she spent her formative years (1989–1998) in the Chechen Republic before fleeing to Russia. Her family’s history spans Crimea, her birthplace and her father’s homeland, and Chechnya, her mother’s roots. These regions, now central to ongoing geopolitical tensions, anchor Vladlena’s personal journey of survival and identity. Memory was filmed entirely on location in these regions, giving the documentary an authentic and intimate perspective.

Memory took 8 years to produce and benefited from a Dutch co-production with Amsterdam-based Revolver, supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund Europe and the NL Film Fund. French co-producer Ludovic Henry of Limitless joined the project, helping to secure further funding through the CNC’s Aide au Cinéma du Monde, region Ile-de-France, the Doha Film Institute grant and the support of Pastorale Productions. These collaborations propelled the film to completion, aligning its release with the 30th anniversary of the Chechen War.

Memory had its world premiere as the opening film of Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days) at the 82nd Venice Film Festival in 2025, where it received the People’s Choice Award. It has since screened at major international festivals, including the Sao Paolo IFF, Tallinn Black Nights FF (PÖFF), IDFA, FilmFestival Cottbus (FFC), Göteberg FF and the Viennale, and received numerous awards: Jury Prize at the Marrakech IFF, Best Screenplay at Athens IFF, Best Film at Bergen IFF, and a Special Jury Prize at Valladolid IFF (Seminci). The film was also shortlisted in the documentary section at the European Academy Awards, cementing its presence on the international circuit.

Beyond the feature, the project encompasses a cross-media approach: the award-winning short No Nation Without Culture promotes the feature, and a children’s book forms part of an impact campaign aimed at educating younger audiences on the mechanisms of propaganda and the importance of critical thinking in contexts of war and conflict.