Discoveries from Ukraine World Cinema

The story of a school rock band from Soviet Kiev who really wanted to become more popular than Elvis Presley.

The appearance of a young teacher shakes a degraded mining town from its sleepy trance. When the sparks of feeling ignite between her and a young miner, the local youths, battered by the violence all around them, respond with animal aggression and rage. In the fight against otherness, evil takes on magnificent, baroque forms.

A documentary short with no narration, just the music by Anton Baibakov in the background, consisting of black and white photographs of Vladyslav Krasnoshchok made in deocuppied cities and at the frontline.

War doesn’t start and end in battlefields; it originates and is buried in peaceful cities. This film delves into the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, not by focusing on violence, shelling, or the victims, but by reflecting on the military vehicles that either enter or have long been embedded in the lives and minds of people across various countries.

Dora visits Kyiv from Berlin and reconnects with old friend Dima. While exploring the city, the joy of reunion turns to frustration as he questions her emigration. Exhausted, she ends the meeting. Later, Dima confesses her feelings and pleads for her to stay. Angry, Dora refuses to change her life.

Volunteer Danya promises his mobilized older brother, Bodia, to obtain military first-aid kits by the evening. The task proves more difficult than it initially seemed.

For two years, Anatoli and Svetlana have been living under bombardments in their village, Pesky, not far from Donetsk Airport. Aged 72, they spend a large part of their days in the cellar of their house. They are the only ones that stayed in Pesky, which once had 3,000 inhabitants. They no longer have water, or gas, or electricity. But they resist and continue their activity as beekeepers.

Kyiv, before 24 February 2022. A family is trying to make ends meet— though the fridge is permanently empty and the electric meter has sharp teeth. Then bombs hit the building across the street.

Three elderly veterans of a brutal and bloody war spend the rest of their lives in a shelter and do everything they can to push away thoughts of the impending end. To do this, they joke around, play pranks, and eventually decide to escape to become free as birds.

Many years ago in the village of Kamyanytsya there was the largest ski jump, which attracted numerous tourists, which brought profit to local residents. But the years did not spare this sports facility, and the number of tourists was decreasing. But even in this difficult time, two rogues of the owners of a small hotel are trying to survive as best they can, even if for this it is necessary to rob the unlucky guests.

A young surgeon loses a patient on the operating table for the first time in his practice. Formally, he is not guilty, but he accuses himself. The deceased patient becomes his companion in an insoluble dispute with his conscience. How long does it take to accept death as a part of the profession?

The story about one episode in young family life. Film shows an ordinary life situation in which the daughter via an emotional conversation with her dad appears to be wiser and more adult then her parents. The novel must turn your attention to the fact that children's words have more truth then it seems and the most important skill is to learn to listen and hear each other, especially in a family.

The digitizing of human souls means the nature of humanity itself changes in the future.

A young but already outstanding and successful theater director, Maryan Lus-Kucheryavy, arrives in the small town of Tetiiv to return a very important thing that was once stolen by his best friend. And to help him in this is a simple local boy, Nazar, who agreed to help the director if he would give him a role in the theater.

A story of a man - a father and a son, a defender and a soldier, who has to deal with life's challenges not only at war but also after it's over.

A broken fairytale depicting a crucial moment in the life of Alina, a 20-year-old "million dollar baby" from Kyiv, whose passion for football has a chance of saving her from poverty.

In this haunting and visually inventive documentary, a spectral voice drifts through time and memory to trace the Maidan revolution and the roots of resistance in Ukraine.

A film about the history of the Metalist Kharkiv football club, created by fans.

The hero of the Russian-Ukrainian war has a classic manifestation of post-traumatic syndrome. Uncontrolled emotional manifestations, isolation, hallucinations, no one wants to have anything to do with him. No one needs him: neither the state nor his relatives. To no one, except the manager of the boarding house. The Soldier's case was of particular interest to a government official who suddenly arrived at the boarding house. After all, the boy's visions are not just hallucinations, they are omens and help to find out the fate of other missing soldiers. It turns out that this civil servant has his own pain that he hides. Oddly enough, the life destinies of these different people unexpectedly intersect.

Roman, 20-year-old Ukrainian warrior who lost a hand and a leg while defending Mariupol in April 2022. Wounded, Roman was captured by the Russians and spent three weeks in prison before being exchanged.

Hordes of green caterpillars dream of delicious and sweet apples. They have already prepared their teeth to hunt for the favorite fruits, as their leader decides to tell necessary instructions and organizes endless columns of his subjects. Will apples endure the war and survive?

Liuba and Andrii, two war veterans bearing both physical wounds and the invisible scars of PTSD, find solace in each other as they navigate the long road to recovery. Their bond offers a fragile hope for healing, but as they confront the lasting impact of trauma and the challenge of rebuilding their lives, their connection is tested in a quiet, deeply human struggle for love, strength, and renewal.

This film portrays a child's fantasy - naïve and absurd. A girl gets too excited while playing in her room and suddenly finds herself in a world made of paper and plasticine.

The autumn merciless wind brings a middle-aged man to a cafe. Strange cafe: amazing waiter, strange visitors and strange tastes - The man's menu attracts the most expensive dish called "Summer full". What kind of dish is this? He makes an order. But the wait is dragging on.

Ukraine, 2025: The public is shocked by the resonant murder of the press attache of the Consul of Poland on the eve of the arrival of the commission from the EU. Andrei and Pavel accidentally become murder witnesses, which as a result turns them into the primary suspects. They are hunted by SSU, police and mercenaries. Heroes meet in a difficult battle for their lives, for the life and welfare of the whole nation.

This story is about a father and son who have different views on the future and different ideas about life.

Dasha, a young cinematographer, is going home from Germany to Druzhkivka, Donetsk region. She had not been home for two years, since the beginning of the war. Upon exiting the train, she immediately runs into her old friend Andrii, with whom she once filmed a documentary and now shares a mutual sympathy. Now, he is a military man. Dasha's parents pick her up, and she asks them to give Andrii a lift. On the way home, Andrii is invited to dinner. Dasha spends her weekends with him, gets to know his platoon commander, and falls into the vortex of Andrii's internal conflicts with his military colleagues. When Andrii got wounded at the front, his expensive things - a bulletproof vest and a helmet - were supposed to be retrieved by his colleagues, who, however, were just not disciplined enough and lost Andrii's things.

The documentary film about the life and work of prominent Ukrainian monumental artists Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnichenko, whose main work - the Wall of Remembrance at Baykove Cemetery - was destroyed by the Soviet authorities after 13 years of daily hard work ...

Is truth visible or even a real phenomenon or some transparent shell… A metaphysical etude where the object around which everything happens; around which actors collide and conflicts unfold with no clear outline of events. Only one state exists through which everything else moves - sand.

Nurse Varvara and firefighter Varfolomiy’s relationship deteriorates as they become entangled in a web of crime, kidnapping, and betrayal, leading to tragic outcomes.

A film adaptation of Valerian Pidmohylny's short story of the same name. The story of the complex relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat during the Bolshevik coup.

The meaning of the main character's life is the cultivation of flowers. His fragile harmony is disturbed by the sudden death in the neighborhood and the same sudden appearance of a young woman. To dampen his growing interest in his new neighbor, the hero tries to concentrate even more on his plants, which for him are the model of an ideal world. But his train is irresistible.

Mykhalych, a farmer from Luhansk, miraculously escapes captivity by the Batman battalion (LPR). Unable to continue farming near Luhansk, he sets up a farm in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. Mykhalych plants his first crop...

Four friends wake up in a police station with no memory of anything. They are accused of murdering a dwarf. The heroes collect all the photos and videos to find out what happened last night at the party.

On Sunday 1943, on day off, Marta want secretly to go with her friend prisoner Frenchman to Strasbourg. In the morning Ivan leaves the courtyard of the German owner and go with the same as he “Ostarbeiter”, to the East, in the direction of his homeland. The Italian resistance liberates Nicholas from the camp of forced labor and bring him to the detachment of the Garibaldians. What will happen to them further? The war does not know pity, but the memory is also merciless. Victims of two dictatorships: Hitler's and Stalin's with memory which never dies ...

The film talks about dough dishes from different regions of Ukraine through stories of Ukrainians who, in their own way, preserve the traditions of Ukrainian cuisine, develop, study and modernize it.

A unique and powerful documentary that takes you on a journey through the firsthand experiences of actors from the Mariupol Dramatic Theatre. Through their struggles and triumphs, you'll witness the indomitable spirit of artists in the face of war and occupation. The film starts at the premiere of a play staged by these actors in western Ukraine, which recounts their experiences surviving the occupation of Mariupol, the destruction of their theatre.

The protagonist of the film is a psychologist, who faces a difficult task: to return demobilized soldiers to a normal peaceful life and help them socialize. By healing their souls, he does much more than help each patient personally. It helps millions of civilians to accept into society those who consider themselves exiles. Through the prism of the protagonist, we show the life and difficulties faced by soldiers returning home from the front. We will experience all the victories and failures of the protagonist and his wards.

Under no circumstances will a person become a monster except voluntarily. The example of a boy whose life is seemingly crippled by the external circumstances will prove that kindness and sympathy are much more natural for people then hatred and evil.

Ukraine, 2020. After the introduction of visa-free travel, everyone left abroad. Only eight people remain at home: a model, an engineer, an accountant, an IT specialist, a blogger, a prince, a Chinese spy, and a separatist. A Canadian director of Ukrainian descent arrives in the empty country and tries to understand who these people are and why they stayed.

World War II and the plant caused my mother's family to move to Ma-riupol. The war with Russia and the environmental consequences of the plant's operation play a key role in its future life.

An unsentimental yet compassionate film about building a community to increase a sense of belonging despite living the worst times ever imagined.

Woland from Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, the guide at the Bulgakov Museum, little Mikhail on his own, and his nanny, united in a single narrative in this experimental documentary inspired by the biography of the writer. To approach this mysterious oeuvre the film combines the uncombinable. Re-enactments at Bulgakov’s house in the Podil neighbourhood are met with excerpts from films by Griffith, Lubitsch and Duvivier. The heady mix of storytelling techniques makes this film a hypnotising dream, confounding like the work of the writer himself.

What is the most important moment of the present? I am "here and now" as though in certain environment. The main heroine Poli teaches people how to live here and now - in present continuum. She holds workshops - communicating with everyone separately, but in one space without boundaries. Five groups with five issues. Will she be able to help them? Or is she trying to help herself?

Fate was unfair to an entire generation of Ukrainian football players. Every season, the Ukrainian national team set one goal: to make it to the World Cup. Every season, the goal remained a dream. Until 2006.

In the 17th century, in a Cossack village near Chyhyryn on Christmas Eve, Halya, the daughter of centurion Khoma Kychatyi, is looking for a matchmaker from a young Cossack Nazar Stodolya, whom she loves. But her father is ready to give her in marriage to a rich colonel. So, when the colonel's matchmakers come, he tries to deceive his daughter with the help of Stekha, his keywoman, in order to get her consent.

About a flying little mouse that accidentally got to simple little mice. Here, he feels like a stranger, because in spite of some similarities, he has many differences the new environment does not want to smooth out or ignore. He was a tiny baby when he came to them, but nothing changes over time, sometimes even exacerbating the situation with new circumstances.

August 19, 1991. USSR. Moscow is filled with rallies, barricades and tanks. But a summer school camp on the South is living its own life.

A tale of changeless and sad pictures of village’s last days of life, told through prism of a real story.

Gathering together dozens of his musicians, providing them with housing and work in Lviv, organising the evacuation of instruments from under fire, and continuing to perform: this is the second time that the director of the Luhansk Philharmonic, Ihor Shapovalov, has revived the orchestra. Back in 2015, after being rescued from Luhansk, Sievierodonetsk became his home. In seven years, Igor has managed not only to staff the orchestra, but also to establish links with orchestras from Europe and different parts of Ukraine, and to show that Luhansk region has always been, is and will be Ukrainian. Today, the battle for Sievierodonetsk is ongoing, and Russia's large-scale invasion is putting the musicians in front of new challenges. But they remember why it is worth taking to the stage again and again, to spread Ukrainian and European culture.

12-years old Yurko lives in far mountain village with his mother. Yurko's father went to work abroad. The fight for father's car becomes a story of growing up.

A man struggling with his inner world begins therapy and unexpectedly falls in love at first sight.

Nymph loves to sing. She got it from her mother Muse, she is an outstanding performer, whom Nymph admires. Once at her mother's birthday party, 13-year-old Nymph sang her mother's favorite song, and even so much so that the guests began to actively join in the round dances around the girl. Muse immediately felt the same desire to dance, realizing this, Muse hid her resentment, but she would definitely talk to her daughter...

In the polyphony of voices, a search for home unfolds. What is home? What is its purpose? Is there anything bigger than home? What are the sounds, colours, and smells that let it live in our memory? The collective and the individual is expressed through the voices of those who lost it in the Russian war in Ukraine. Associations, memories, meanings: four letters, four hundred things between them — home.