In her 20 years of filmmaking Aliona van der Horst (born in in Russia, raised in the Netherlands) has received multiple international awards for her films, which were screened at film festivals around the world. Because of her personal, poetic and cinematic vision, her films are profoundly compelling and touching. Her most recent film, Love is Potatoes, won a number of awards, including the Golden Calf Award (Dutch Oscar) in 2018. Her films revolve around the question of how ordinary people's lives are shaped by historical events. By zooming in to a very intimate level she tells a universal story full of compassion. Most of her work deals with Russia, a country with which she has a love/hate relationship. Retrospectives of her work were held in Barcelona, Kiev and Belgrade. She is a member of the Documentary branch of AMPAS.