Zoya Laktionova was born in Mariupol, in a working class family in 1984. Zoya first appeared in the world of documentary cinema as a character in the film “Ma” in 2017, and a year later made her first short documentary “Diorama” about the mined sea at the  Mariupol area. The film won an award in the MyStreetFilms category at the “86” festival (Ukraine) in 2018, has participated in numerous European film festivals (DOKLeipzig, Ji.Hlava, Cottbus etc), and was released in cinemas in Ukraine in 2019. In 2021, Zoya premiered her new short “Territory of Empty Windows” at DocudaysUA International Human Rights DFF, and showed it in cinemas at Molodist IFF in Kyiv, received a special award from the Ji.Hlava festival at the Obirok 2021 festival and the main award at the documentary competition of the French-Ukrainian festival MIST 2021. International premiere was held at MakeDoxIFF, North Macedonia.

Before the start of a full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine (24/02/22), Zoya lived in Kyiv and worked as an independent artist and documentary filmmaker. She works with themes of war, memory and personal stories.