弗拉德连娜·桑杜 Vladlena Sandu

Vladlena Sandu (Crimea, Ukraine, 1982) is a filmmaker and theatre director whose work explores war trauma, dictatorship, colonialism, and sexual trafficking. She grew up in Grozny during the Chechen War and was later displaced to southern Russia. After graduating in film directing from VGIK (Moscow), she completed a postgraduate degree in Aesthetics and Cultural Theory. Her films have been screened at Rotterdam, Leipzig DOC, Berlinale, Series Mania, GoEast, and other festivals, and have won several international awards. After fleeing Russia in 2022, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she continued her artistic work in Amsterdam. There, she created the award-winning performance The Rainbow Cinema – based on her own experience of sexual trafficking. She is a 2025 European Theatre Academy participant. Sandu is currently developing a film musical about the sexual exploitation of young girls in Europe. Her feature debut Memory is based on autobiographical childhood memories and the Chechen War.