Tsilyk Iryna

Tsilyk Iryna

Writer, film director

Iryna Tsilyk (born in 1982 in Kyiv) is Ukrainian filmmaker and writer.

Graduated from Kyiv National University of Theater, Cinematography and Television named by Karpenko-Karyy summa cum laude. She works as director in a film industry at the moment (fiction and documentary).

Also Tsilyk is the author of several books (poetry, prose, children's books). Some of her poems and short stories have been translated into English, German, French, Polish, Lithuanian, Czech, Swedish, Romanian, Catalan languages and published in some foreign periodicals; were presented at different international literary festivals events, such as "Schamrock Festival Der Dichterinnen" (Germany, 2018), "Poesiefestival Berlin" 2017, Leipzig Book Fair 2017, Frankfurt Book Fair 2016, Vilnius book Fair 2016, "Meridian Czernowitz" (Ukraine, 2015-2018), Vilenica International literary festival (Slovenia 2008) and others.

Tsilyk was an active participant of the Kyiv EuroMaydan. During the Russian-Ukrainian war in eastern Ukraine, she frequently participates in various festivals and literary readings in the frontline cities of Donbas. Also she directed two documentaries for the film almanac "The Invisible Battalion" about Ukrainian women at war (2017). At the momet Tsilyk’s working on the full-length documentary "The Earth Is Blue As an Orange" about civilians living in the red zone of Donbas.

Moreover, she actively stands for the release of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, illegally imprisoned in Russia.

Iryna lives in Kyiv together with her husband, writer Artem Chekh, and their son Andriy.