“The European Film Academy is planning a vigil for detained Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov opposite the Russian Embassy in Berlin on Tuesday (July 10).

Concern is growing for the life of the filmmaker who has been on hunger strike in a remote Arctic prison camp for eight weeks in protest at his detention and that of some 70 compatriots in Russia.

The Berlin-based body, presided over by director Wim Wenders, called on supporters to join the vigil from 17.00 – 18.00 local time on the city’s famous Unter den Linden boulevard on which the building is situated.

‘Don’t Let Oleg die! The Ukrainian Filmmaker Oleg Sentsov has been on hunger strike for eight weeks – We ask for his immediate release!,’ the academy said in a statement on Monday.

Sentsov was arrested in his home in the contested region of Crimea by Russian security forces in May 2014. Prior to his detention, he had been involved in the pro-European Euromaidan protests in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev in 2013 and was strongly opposed to Russia’s subsequent occupation of the Crimea in 2014” says Melanie Goodfellow.

Read more on Screen Daily about Oleg Sentspv’s hunger strike