Oleg Sencov
Date of Birth: 13.07.1976
Place of Birth. Education. Born in Simferopol. In 1998, he graduated from the Kyiv National Economic University. He participated in film courses in Moscow.
Career. In 2008, he co-founded the company Kry Cinema; at that time, his short film 'It's good when the fish-banana is caught' was released. In 2009, he also made the short educational film 'Bullhorn'.
In 2012, he debuted with his first feature film 'Gamer' at the international festival in Rotterdam. The budget of the film about fanatic computer game fans was $20 thousand, and real gamers acted in it. That same year, the film received the prize from the Guild of Film Historians and Critics at the festival in Khanty-Mansiysk and participated in the competition program of the Molodist IFF and the Odesa IFF.
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In 2013, Sencov presented his new project - 'The Rhinoceros'. The plot of the film takes place in the criminal 90s, and a child growing up in a difficult family becomes a rhinoceros. The project won prestigious competitions (Pitches) at several international film festivals and received financial support from Goskino. However, work on it was suspended due to Sencov's active participation in protests.
In February 2022, the popular streaming service Netflix acquired the broadcasting rights for the film 'The Rhinoceros'.
Euromaidan and political imprisonment in Russia. Since the events on the Euromaidan, Sencov became an active participant and joined the Automaidan. During the annexation of Crimea, he often traveled to Simferopol, where he tried to organize demos for a united country and supply Ukrainian soldiers on the peninsula.
On May 10, 2014, Oleg Sencov, Alexander Kolchenko, Gennady Afanasyev, and Alexey Chirniy were arrested by the Russian FSB in Simferopol for preparing attacks at the Lenin monument, the Eternal Flame monument, and the offices of pro-Russian organizations in Crimea.
Subsequently, Sencov was abducted by Russian intelligence from Crimea and transferred to the Moscow Lefortovo prison's investigative detention center. The director's lawyer reported that torture was used to extract confessions from him.
Two suspects - Afanasyev and Chirniy - admitted their guilt and made false statements against Sencov and Kolchenko. Afanasyev's lawyer reported shortly before the sentencing for Sencov and Kolchenko that Afanasyev had confessed under torture.
On August 25, 2015, the North Caucasus military court in Russia sentenced Oleg Sencov to 20 years in a strict regime. Another defendant in the case, Alexander Kolchenko, received a ten-year strict regime sentence. When the verdict was announced, Sencov and Kolchenko sang the Ukrainian anthem.
The European Film Academy, the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, the Russian Kino-Soyuz, the Confederation of Film Unions of the CIS and Baltic States, public activists, a number of significant film festivals, and filmmakers came to the defense of the director. The official Kyiv has repeatedly appealed to Russia to release the Ukrainian citizens detained for an invented crime, but without success.
In February 2016, Oleg Sencov was taken to Yakutia to serve his sentence.
In September 2017, he was transferred to the 'FKU IK-18 UFSIN of Russia in the JNAO' in the village of Charp in the Autonomous District of Yamalo-Nenets.
In October 2017, he was transferred to the correctional colony No. 8 'White Bear' in Labitnangi in the Autonomous District of Yamalo-Nenets.
On September 7, 2019, Oleg Sencov was returned as part of an exchange between Ukraine and Russia.
Awards. On August 23, 2014, Sencov received the Order of Courage 3rd class. On September 24, 2015, Sencov and Kolchenko were awarded the Order of Courage 1st class.
On October 25, 2018, Oleg Sencov was awarded the Sakharov Prize. On December 12, the prize was awarded to Natalia Kaplan, Sencov's cousin.
Family. Divorced. From his first marriage, he has two children: daughter Alina (born 2002) and son Vladislav (born 2004), who has been diagnosed with autism. On February 5, 2021, Sencov announced that he had a third child - daughter Emma.
On July 5, 2022, he married Veronika Welch, an activist from Euromaidan SOS, from Ivano-Frankivsk. Veronika and Oleg had been in a relationship for a long time. Both were students and met on January 27, 2014, in Kharkiv and Chmelnytskyi at university. At that time, they met in the library and at festivals. They also jointly found a few wedding rings.
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