Discoveries from Ukraine World Cinema

A documentary about time.

The girl lives in her own little bubble, which collides with the harsh, sharp edge of reality.

Traumatised by her daughter's death a Ukrainian nurse takes retribution, but is conflicted by her faith and unprepared for the consequences.

Alla Horska was a Ukrainian artist of the 1960s, monumentalist painter, one of the first representatives of the underground art movement, dissident, and human rights activist of the Sixtiers movement in Ukraine. She was murdered in 1970 while under surveillance by the KGB.

Another visit to the doctor happens to be unsuccessful for Maria. Her marriage is on the verge of destruction. Deceiving her husband, she gradually realizes that she lives in a lie, and increasingly retreats into herself to look for forgotten answers.

Every morning the Clown gets on the bus and arranges a show for passengers, makes gifts to children and the conductor. Everyone is happy and adores him. But once he doesn't show up… This is a story about kindness. The story of the "baton of goodness" that a young policeman takes from a clown (retiree) and passes on the good.

4 minute sandanimation about love, life & death.

Do you want to become a collaborator in Kherson? These weird tips will help you.

TV version of the stage play. This is a specific comedy, where myth and reality have equal power, where radioactive humor borders on the truth of our lives, where potatoes are a delicacy, and "condensed" is simply fantastic.

The director interviews young women interested in renting a room, initially discussing cohabitation preferences. The tone shifts when a young Ukrainian woman arrives, leading to a focus on the stories of those who fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion. The director pieces together their trauma and loneliness, sharing her own memories and videos of happier times, symbolising the collective pain of an impossible return.

Smartphone screen as a witness of monotonous days of a mother and her daughter. They wake up, cook breakfast, chat, deal with boredom, love and kill time.

1932. Western Ukraine. The fighters of an underground Ukrainian organization conduct a revolutionary action against the government. Contrary to their plans, it turns into a bloody slaughter. Now the choice of young patriots is small: death or immortality.

Askania-Nova is the largest steppe wildlife sanctuary in Europe. It is located in south part of Ukraine, not far from Crimea peninsula. In order to underline this unique beauty we created a documentary musical film about life of animals and people in wildlife sanctuary of Askania-Nova. The movie reveals stories of a three protagonists, whose destinies were entangled because of wildlife sanctuary.

In 1986, in Kyiv, Ukraine, the largest work of art in Europe - the Wall of Memory, was illegally destroyed. And along with it, the names of its two authors - Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnichenko, were erased from the history of art. For many years this story has been kept in the strictest confidence and is known only to a narrow circle of the creative elite. All attempts by the authors to achieve justice and to be heard, just lead to even greater resistance from the authorities against them. Their names are gradually crossed out under all major works, from the lists of Ukrainian artists, and to top it off. In 2004, their studio was illegally written off and tried to be taken away. For 8 years, the film crew has been watching how this story develops, the courage of Vladimir, who, despite his old age and other difficulties, continues his struggle, in the name of Ada and their joint creativity, and how he, with the participation of a new generation, achieves colossal results.

A music video made collaboratively for the strange 1994 song by French band Les Pirez, which had become a hit at one of the main Russian domestic animation festivals.

This documentary is a portrait of several residents in a remote region of Ukraine. They dream of sunken treasures, sing in a village choir, fight raiders and design coffins for themselves - in short, they live a normal Ukrainian life.

During World War II, a father, mother, and son fought for Ukraine's freedom in their own ways. The father fought and died in the ranks of the Red Army, the mother worked as a secretary for the Union of Ukrainian Women (the largest women's organization in Galicia), and 16-year-old Mykhailo was a staunch supporter of anti-Soviet propaganda, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

One extraordinary technical break. A report with no cuts.

It took nine years to create two feature films. They were conceived as a movie-diptych about Leonid Fedorov and a group of musicians formed around him.

Taisiya and Fadei are two teenagers who share a dream of becoming ballet dancers. Due to the war, they left their hometown of Kharkiv to pursue professional training in Kyiv and Vienna. Navigating the challenges of displacement and the pursuit of their art, the two reflect on the invisible scars that war leaves on a young person and the sheltering role of art in their journey.

This is a Christmas musical with eight old Christmas carols that have been collected during special search expeditions. Combined with the electronic sound of Yaroslav Tatarchenko and performed by famous Ukrainian artists, these carols have found a new life and for the first time they can be heard by the general public.

In November 2022, despite the war and power outages in Kyiv, the Docudays UA festival is taking place - live and offline, for the first time in two years. It was a special edition which the festival team called the State of Emergency, and it was accompanied by the news of the liberation of Kherson from Russian occupiers, daily air raid warnings, and dark Kyiv evenings. The three-day journey in the film is full of the fragile humor of the festival team and the eager eyes of the audience.

An immersive insight into the last hours of 13-year-old Sasha’s life in a boarding school for children deprived of parental care. He is one of the luckiest – an American family finally adopted him. Today he will move to another country forever but there’s something that doesn’t let him go.

The armed conflict in the South-East of Ukraine continues to this day. The guy from the front-line town is drafted into the army, but he wants to hold a camera in his hands, not an assault rifle. Especially against their fellow countrymen. How does a war alien to modern man suddenly become a reality? How does war affect friendship and love? And do we have hope?

White winter blizzard covers everything. We can rely now only on saints, on our prayers. The future has sailed away, with us left behind. Astray, we did not board the magic ship. The task at hand is simple — not to perish in the fog, not to die from the cold, not to get trapped under the ice. Not to fall in our own snares. Or are we all in one big trap anyway? Running around in a small circle, counting those who vanished.

This film, marking the 130th anniversary of Oleksandr Dovzhenko's birth, reveals the artist's controversial path—from his first attempts at cinema to the creation of masterpieces that became symbols of Ukrainian poetic cinema. The authors show his ability to maneuver between creative ambitions and the political demands of the era, remaining a unique figure in cultural history.

A television performance based on the play by R. Sheridan, presented by the National Academic Theatre of Russian Drama named after L. Ukrainka (Kyiv).

The capture of Mariupol by the Russian army was one of the tragic consequences of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. A girl with the call sign "Nava", who worked in the press service of the Azov regiment and is in the besieged Azovstal by the invaders, reads her verse under documentary footage of evidence of the destruction of Mariupol by the Russians.

Detective conducts the surveillance for a young man. After a time he discovers his dealer, however the dealer appears to be very creative in his business and a legal agent exceeds his instructions in methods of dealing with crimes. As a result, this encourages the dealer's reckless behavior, which attacks his prodigal father who just appears in the wrong place and the wrong time. He just wanted to give his son a hug.

Depressing post WWII times a man walks into a pharmacy to buy poison. Yet indecisive he hesitates. Even in hard times there are reasons to live. But is it too late?

Sanko returns to his grandfather's house, where he spent his childhood.

Ajahi is the poorest district of Mariupol. An ideal place for meditations on poverty; a place where you won't see anything that is supposed to be shown; place, to share the void with a friend.

A girl named Masha is soon to be 20 years old. She's feeling really anxious about it, because being 20 means being an actual adult - and her day to day life just doesn't look the part. We observe Masha's life for one full day. And that day the girl notices something weird - and tries to get rid of it.

March 11, 2011. What happened that day in Japan seemed absolutely impossible, but it turned out to be completely real. What is the future for the people of Fukushima? Will they be able to live a normal life? And will there be an end to the dark tunnel in which they, and indeed all of Japan, found themselves? The greatest nuclear tragedy occurred at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986. And I decided to go to Chernobyl to find answers to the questions that tormented me. I wanted to see with my own eyes the consequences and perhaps overcome them. I wanted to find a way out for the Fukushima people. You can't bring back the past, the clock won't turn back, and the only thing left for us is to move forward.

Ukrainian-born, Russian-bred, Afghan-raised, filmmaker once started to catalog all his fences, and then more and more new fences appeared.

"Here We Are Now" is an emotional documentary which tells three stories of Ukrainian refugees who are now scattered around the world.

About the meeting of a boy and a dog. A woman found a stray dog, washed and fed it. At the same time, the boy tries to prove to his father that he is an adult and can have a four-legged pet and look after it. But before they are be together, they will have to pass several tests.

A series of events brings the Bulgarian Fori to the Danube Delta. In the Ukrainian city of Vylkove, due to random tragic circumstances, Fori finds himself in custody. But in this town the hero meets true love, and the beauty and spiritual atmosphere of "Ukrainian Venice" gives him the feeling that this is the place he was looking for all his life.

The fourth cartoon about the adventures of a dog named Movie. Movie as a journalist goes to Africa to shoot a film about animals, but there she has to fight against poachers who are trying to catch these animals for sale in zoos.

The Ukrainian animation is based on the classic Scottish fairy tale about the misadventures of a regular fisherman, whose day was a complete disaster since early morning when he went into the woods to look for a tree for his new boat.

Brief stories from the Russian-Ukrainian war, collected by three volunteers who have been travelling along the frontline with humanitarian cargoes for more than four years.

Documentary biographical drama about the life and career of the first Ukrainian pop star - Nazarii Yaremchuk.

Vasylii is a classic example of a man living under his wife's thumb. His bossy, grumpy wife is nagging at him from morning till night for no apparent reason. Poor guy has accepted his fate, however, today, on the way to a birthday party, he gets a chance to find out, what it feels like to be a real man, a knight of sorts, and to do something heroic.

A musical documentary film including a video version of the concert show of the Ukrainian musical group The Hardkiss. It was the first big performance for the musicians and the show attracted 6500 spectators. At the same time the film tells about the three-year anniversary of the band's line-up and the release of their first album.

Shelter is a virtual reality documentary directed by Sjors Swierstra (The Netherlands) and co-directed by Ivanna Khitsinska (Ukraine) that offers an intimate look at the war in Ukraine. The film immerses the viewer in everyday scenes: from a tender conversation between pregnant women in an underground maternity ward in Kyiv to the heart-wrenching funeral of a soldier in Lviv. From the tense preparation of soldiers in a frontline barracks to the breathtaking performance of a symphony orchestra in a basement in Kharkiv. In Shelter, the audience is invited to step into a virtual space with people from Ukraine, to witness moments of shared humanity and reflect on the cost of war.

The story of the life of an orphanage, where a new resident is brought - a boy Yurko. Yurko misses his father very much, and "dad" finally comes to him one night in the body of a former pupil of this house - electrician Bohdan, who is the conductor of the souls of children's parents in this orphanage.

The main character is a young girl Masha, an employee of the bank and an incorrigible romantic. Her unlucky marriage breaks up, and the girl is trying to arrange her personal life. Masha meets three men. One is a famous TV presenter, the second is a famous musician, and the third is a scandalous politician. But ... disappointment follows disappointment. And as soon as the girl decides to start a new life, suddenly happiness comes in her life in the person of the long-awaited man whom she was looking for ...

The protagonist's earthly life seems fleeting and meaningless to him, which is why 50-year-old Forry prefers the starry sky - he is a passionate amateur astronomer. By a strange coincidence, he travels with his best friend Theo to the Danube delta and ends up in Vilkovo, a town in Ukraine where the Lipovans live. Here, Forry unwittingly commits a crime and ends up in jail, but it is in this strange town that true love finds him. Fate, however, always has other plans. Will there be punishment? And what will it be? Prosecution or conscience will be the harshest judge.

Looking at this story with no place enough for a third person, a therapist would shout something about complexes, and a civil engineer something about square meters.

How 30 minutes of self-isolation can change life. Incoming call. A girl asks to come over. She says that she is stuck on the balcony. Right after the conversation the girl acts weird, her friend Marina supports her. However, everything is not going as well as they planned. Will the women be able to "trap" a man? And maybe that's exactly what he's been waiting for?

A cynical actor, Lev, is fired from the theater where he has worked his entire life. In order to earn a living, he finds himself in a psychiatric hospital, pretending to be mentally ill. There, he commits a serious crime, and the question arises: who is he - a mentally ill person or a brilliant actor?

Three men, whose neglected lifes seem like poor existence, created for themselves an entertainment: to peep per couples who solitude in the forest. They having fun to watch and then to scare them. And this time they decided to act the same way again, but they found something another, not like they used to...

In a painful conversation, fifty-year-old Lilia speaks of her mental trauma as a result of her parents’ constant disputes during her childhood, while her mother justifies the lack of love by the strict frames of a totalitarian society.

The story of a young programmer, dreamer, who desperately sought to reach an unprecedented goal - the creation of artificial intelligence, and now is ready to have a long-awaited and decisive conversation that can permanently complete his efforts.

Military actions have been ongoing in the East of Ukraine for 3 years now. From the first days of war in different hot military action zones women are part of the actions and perform military tasks. However, society still retains an ambiguous, stereotypical attitude towards women in the army...

Russian war changed the lives of Ukrainian filmmakers entirely. Some are at the frontline, some volunteering or trying to take care of their kids, but everybody is reflecting. What is the picture the war reveals?

A daughter, who had been living abroad for a long time, returns home after a call from her mother about her father's death. Conflict erupts between them when the daughter blames her mother for her father's death, and the mother accuses the daughter of not returning in time. Eventually, seeing her mother in deep emotional crisis, the daughter agrees to a Christian funeral to ease her suffering.

A crafty old wizard and his cat lived in a messy house and often went hungry, because they did not like to clean up or cook. Once they came up with the idea to take a hardworking girl from the village, Olenka, in a limbo. And so it was done. After the threats of magic, she agreed to do all of their housework. But magic peas found in the garden of gave her hope for salvation.

Ruslana Abrosimova, 17 years old, lives in Mariinka, Donetsk region. Now Ruslana is in an unconditional state of war and is struggling every day with her desire to go out on the street or to stay at home, safe, in her room. War in Ukraine rages for more than five years already. Still, teens never cease to think about studying, discovering new cities and their bright future. Conflict occurs at every step as soon as the children open their room doors. That`s why Ruslana decided to take her camera and start to film her reality.

Jonesy, an art academy student, falls into severe depression due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Obsessed with black birds, she becomes detached from her surroundings, including her caring friends Berman and Susie. Despite their efforts to help her recover, Jonesy remains unaware of their struggles. Eventually, she begins to wake up from her depression, only to learn that Berman has left to fight in the east. Hope for recovery remains uncertain. Inspired by O. Henry's story "The Last Leaf".