Can you hear me?

a film by

Poland | 15' | 03/2025 | animated documentary

Nastia, who has lived abroad for years, starts to teach her mom how to use Internet services. Different perceptions of technology become the starting point for exposing intergenerational conflicts and long-forgotten family threads. Can an intimacy regained via zoom be a turning point for the future relationship between two adults?

“a film that captures the convergence of the trouble of communication with the generation gap, transforming technological glitches into emotional insights, and distance into re-connection.”
Square Eyes - telluride-film-festival-laurels-770x470-2
Square Eyes - ShortFest25_OFFICIAL SELECTION-K
Square Eyes - Screenshot 2025-08-19 at 11.11.43
“a film that captures the convergence of the trouble of communication with the generation gap, transforming technological glitches into emotional insights, and distance into re-connection.”
Square Eyes - telluride-film-festival-laurels-770x470-2
Square Eyes - ShortFest25_OFFICIAL SELECTION-K
Square Eyes - Screenshot 2025-08-19 at 11.11.43

Anastazja Naumenko

Biography

Anastazja Naumenko is a visual artist and director, whose main investigation focuses on intertwinement and co-relations between real and fictional worlds, hence most of their works are a mix of documentary and fiction. They are currently studying at die Angewandte in Vienna, Transarts department. Their first film “We hope you won’t need to come back” was shown at more than 25 festivals around the world.

Filmography

  • Can You Hear Me? – short film – 2024
  • Obyś nie musiała tutaj wrócić / We hope you won’t need to come back – Student film – 2020
Square Eyes -

Crew

Director: Anastazja Naumenko
Scriptwriter: Anastazja Naumenko
Producers: Animoon: Maks Piłasiewicz, Piotr Szczepanowicz, Grzegorz Wacławek
Animation: Anastazja Nuamenko, Michał Kowalczyk
Music: Flavien Berger
Editor: Anastazja Nuamenko, Aleksandra Rosset-Żak
Production design: Anastazja Naumenko
Sound: Michał Fojcik, Barbara Kapica (Sound Mind)
Production manager: Maks Piłasiewicz; Dominika Krysiewicz
Cast: Svitlana Naumenko (mom); Anastazja Naumenko (Nastia)

Festivals

35+ selections, 7 awards

Select highlights: 

  • Glasgow Short Film Festival, United Kingdom (19 – 23 March, 2025)
    Competition
  • Go Short – International Short Film Festival, the Netherlands (1 – 6 April, 2025)
    European Competition
  • Millennium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival, Poland (9 – 15 May, 2025)
    Short Competition
  • Beast International Film Festival, Portugal (6 – 8 June, 2025)
    Competition Won: ANIMA EAST AWARD for Best Animation Film
  • Palm Springs International ShortFest, United States (24 – 30 June, 2025)
    Competition
  • Animator – International Festival of Animation, Poland (5 – 13 July, 2025)
    National Competition Won: Bronze Animusz
  • Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnia and Herzegovina (15 – 22 August, 2025)
    European Shorts
  • Turku Animated Film Festival, Finland (20 – 24 August, 2025)
    International Competition
  • Telluride Film Festival, United States (29 August – 1 September, 2025)
    Filmmakers of Tomorrow
  • Fantoche International Animated Film Festival, Switzerland (2 – 7 September, 2025)
    International Competition
  • Kyiv International Short Film Festival, Ukraine (4 – 10 September, 2025)
    National Competition Won: Best Film Award by Film Critics Ukraine
  • Lille International Short Film Festival, France (18 – 28 September, 2025)
    International Competition
  • Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin, Germany (22 – 26 October, 2025)
    Competition Won: Best Short Film
  • Leeds International Film Festival, United Kingdom (30 October – 16 November)
    World Animation Competition 

Password




Press materials

EPK: Click here

Stills & directors’ photos: Click here

Dialogue lists – English, English audio descriptions, Polish: Click here

Downloadable trailer: Vimeo & Youtube 

Jury statements

A young woman living abroad tries to teach her mother, who lives back home in Ukraine, how to use Zoom and create an email account. What begins as a simple tutorial in technology gradually unfolds into a tender, funny, and deeply layered portrait of communication and its discontents, of what is spoken and what remains unsaid, of family codes that endure across silence, absence, and time.
This animated documentary plays brilliantly with form, finding wit and warmth in every frame. Its animation is simple yet never simplistic, and its vivid colors give emotional texture to a story that feels both intimate and universal. Through logins, windows and digital interruptions, the film reveals something far more profound about care, understanding, and longing.
We, the jury members, were moved by a film that captures the convergence of the trouble of communication with the generation gap, transforming technological glitches into emotional insights, and distance into re-connection. It is a film both playful and profound, wireless in the affection it transmits to its audience.
Best Short Film – Ukraïnian Film Festival Berlin ’25