Vladlena Sandu

Born in 1982, Vladlena Sandu was raised in Grozny during the Chechen War before being to southern Russia. She studied film directing at VGIK (Moscow) in addition to aesthetic and cultural theory, and her films have screened at numerous international festivals. After fleeing Russia in 2022, she continues her work in Amsterdam, where she created the award-winning performance The Rainbow Cinema based on her own experience of sex trafficking. Memory (2025) is her feature-length debut.