A true crime documentary about the murder of linguist and former MP Iryna Farion is being filmed in Ukraine. The film will be titled "Her Three Verbs".
This was reported by the filmʼs director Yuriy Dvizhon.
The director said that from the first day of Farionʼs murder, the team documented her daughter Sofiaʼs life after losing her mother, the trials, and key events surrounding the case. These episodes will complement the archival scenes featuring Iryna Farion, which were documented while she was alive in 2022.
"At first glance, the case of the murder of Iryna Farion has an obvious version. But the materials of the trial force us to rethink the evidence and the meaning they acquire together. Thus was born the linguistic detective, where words become one of the main tools of investigation. And there is a special symbolism in this — Iryna Farion was a linguist. So language in this story is one of the keys to understanding what happened and how it became possible," the director said about the upcoming film.
This project won a grant from the state competition "Tysyachovesna".
The Murder of Iryna Farion
On July 19, 2024, former MP of the Verkhovna Rada, linguist Iryna Farion, was murdered in Lviv.
Almost a week later, on July 25, the suspect was detained in Dnipro. He turned out to be 18-year-old Vyacheslav Zinchenko. Screenshots from Google Maps were found on the suspectʼs phone, which showed streets connected to Farion. They also found pro-Russian pictures there — with the FSB logo and Nazi symbols, and memes about the linguist.
Law enforcement officers found out that Zinchenko joined a group on a messenger in 2022 that spread ideas of violence, cruelty, and also promoted racial, national, and religious intolerance and discrimination. In 2024, he became a member of another group associated with a Russian neo-Nazi organization.
According to the investigation, while in these groups, the suspect allegedly developed a personal dislike for Iryna Farion because of her active position in protecting the Ukrainian language and culture.
On October 1, 2026, Vyacheslav Zinchenko was sentenced to life imprisonment. During the hearing, he pleaded not guilty.
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