Discoveries from Ukraine World Cinema

Giving a pledge to the victim to find the killer, the police officer uses the girl as bait to search for someone who may never appear.

A meditative film portrait of the director’s father. In this poetic documentary, dreams intertwine with reality to convey a longing for rural life and the emptiness brought on by the urban backdrop.

12-year-old Jewish girl Dinka studies at Machon (Jewish Orthodox orphanage). Lone middle-aged Hana, the Machon headmistress, exerts her best efforts to educate girls in the spirit of Jewish tradition and to protect them from the temptations of the outside world. Once Dinka has watched a boring B-movie on TV and felt in love with Hollywood actor David Travis, a muscular, handsome moustachette. She decides to marry him by the Talmudic rules and writes letters to Hollywood.

The main characters - two brothers, Mark and Yasha, are street-smart and know how to get from life all that is necessary. Mark is referred to as the noble bandit, and Yasha, on the contrary, is all about using his intelligence. Passing difficult twists and turns in their youth, the brothers begin to look for stability. Precisely in one of those days they receive the news about the inheritance. They inherit a well-known pawnshop and the owner is their uncle Felix, who doesn't want to let go of it. Mark and Yasha decide to pick up the inheritance by any means. They part ways, but they are ready for anything...

The 37-year-old man is working for a Corporation, which is engaged in illegal occupation of rural land. Leaving for another "object", he discovers a huge unfinished cathedral at the infinite field. He needs to decide what to do with the cathedral, as well as to subdue a farmer who rightfully owns the land.

An ancient Scripture says: «Get a Power of the Crystal Eye and will have everything you dream about…Sorcery, the hidden power , mystery language of animals and birds – subservient to the Master of the Crystal Eye». School friends teens caught in a tangled game of Sorceress and Witches from different worlds. Who ’s finally winners? Real friendship or the dark ?

Every night, a mysterious silhouette appears under a young man’s balcony. Tired of their monotonous lives, he and his friend, armed with a pig, a tail, and a flashlight, set up an ambush, which turns into a nighttime adventure…

A toy orca from childhood appears in our heroes' life. Now it looks like a big real mammal with a defined mission: to lead the heroine from her everyday life to an adventure she was waiting for.

A pig lived in a village, who made it to the Royal Palace and then became the leader of the pirates, and then the French Navy admiral. His wife was a princess, who, of course, had to try to qualify for the honor to link her fate with the pig. She even had to learn his native language and learn how to cook his favorite dish.

Life is wonderful until one day the sportsman is brutalized, falling a victim to a corrupt criminal justice system. Not giving up, he seeks justice at the European Court of Human Rights.

During the political crisis in the Ukraine, young parents are going through a tough divorce. The mother wishes to emigrate with her child, but the father can't imagine living without his son.

Mariupol is an industrial city on Azov sea. I went there as a young sailor 20 years ago. The places alive in my memory are mostly destroyed. The battle-line of the Russian-Ukrainian war is just nearby the city. In the night I can hear the bombing. However, I am looking for the miracle there.

Full-length narrative-documentary film based on real events that occurred in Kharkiv and in Kharkiv region in 1941-1942. The little girl Nina is surrounded by love and care of her parents, but they still don't realize that DISASTER is waiting for them. The focus is on the story of the Ukrainian-Jewish family, who felt all the horrors of totalitarianism. The feature part of the film reveals the story of ordinary people who have witnessed the "black" pages of human history. The documentary part is an excursion into the history of the Holodomor, the Holocaust and other forms of totalitarianism in Kharkiv and in Kharkiv region.

Yesterday's serviceman Serhii stepping into the new life of a civilian that morning had already lost pace by lunchtime. The transition no longer seems like a walk to him, the day is coming to an end, but a new life still does not begin.

A collection of short stories based on real-life situations revealing the characteristic features of some people with humor. Some of the characters are methodically trying to achieve a different result, while making the same action over and over again. It is interesting that someone even does it. Not typical twists of plot lines and brightness of the images supplement the film.

Di's life consists of three things: tea, bonsai and murder. She is an elite killer. But another order will soon change everything.

Prominent Ukrainian/Italian documentary film director Oleksandr Balahura (most known for link) visits Roma neighborhoods and social events in Zakarpattia (Western Ukraine) and re-visits his earlier work, "Widow-Street", shot on same locations in 1991. He also screens "Widow-Street" to its characters, whom he meets again in 2013.

26 April 1986: Chernobyl’s reactor number 4 explodes and provokes the biggest nuclear disaster in history. Pripyat, where the plant is located, becomes a ghost city. Guided by former inhabitants, Eliška Cílková takes us in her quest of the town’s memory. Gracefully shot, the film reminds us the power of music where less expected.

The forces of evil—a little man, his nephew, a girl, and a ninja—steal the Sacred Lily from a monastery. Matsuoka and his companion overcome fantastical challenges in their struggle against these forces in order to rescue the Lily.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, the thriving electronic scene changed forever. Overnight, producers, DJs, club owners, staff, promoters and curators became soldiers, refugees and volunteers. Such efforts swept through its venues, too. The country's dance floors were suddenly repurposed into medical training facilities and ammunition factories, coordination headquarters and volunteer centres. Ukraine: Nightlife in Resistance delves into six individual perspectives from across its club scene, uncovering from their stories the true cost of war.

As Russian troops were crossing into Ukraine, Andrii Bondarenko wrote a play that looks back on a life bookended by conflict. Two weeks after Russia invaded his country, acclaimed playwright Bondarenko focused on the life he has lived. A peaceful childhood had followed bloodshed. And now, in adulthood, he faced the threat that previous generations of his family had witnessed. These thoughts took form in a one-act play, written in response to events as they were unfolding. To accompany this filmed version of the play, directors Myro Klochko and Anatoliy Tatarenko draws on photographs from Bondarenko's life, conjuring up the people who have populated it and, by extension, the people of Ukraine. The result is an act of artistic expression, of remembrance and, ultimately, of resistance.

Seventeen-year-old Alina is in love with an imposing Frenchman. Suddenly, she loses her sense of humor. But not for long.

A Ukrainian woman comes back to her native village leaving her working life in Italy behind.

A film student obsessed with making a movie about loneliness grabs his camera and sets out chasing old men. It seems he finally manages to catch up with one of them.

Returning wounded from the war Maksym was overcome by self-doubt, in his physiological state. He is undergoing rehabilitation. He loses contact with his wife. He is tormented by dreams. In one of his dreams Maksym goes to the island to catch a lot of fish, as the paramedic advised him. Maksym takes a boat, net, dynamite from the best man and sails to the island.

We think that we know people with whom we communicate all our lives, we know who they are and what they are capable of. But these are just images that we have drawn in our heads that have nothing to do with reality. You can never be completely sure which person is in front of you, what her weaknesses are, and how many personalities she hides in herself. Human is an illusion.

Story about three young people who become friends or even more.

Two young paramedic women, Cuba and Alaska, live on the edge in the war-torn Kharkiv region. Their mission is to save lives while sharing good humor, and belief in victory.

Little Sophie is very mischievous and naughty. With her best friends Paul and Madeleine, she is constantly inventing new games that lead to new problems every time. Her rich imagination often plays tricks on her.

The film follows an annual 10-day- long walking Pilgrimage dedicated to and organized by Ukrainian labour migrants and their families. During 260 km of walk, the Pilgrims spread the word of their experiences abroad and try to reconnect with their families, estranged through the years of migration. They fight the guilt and the sense of blame for migration, and, against the evermore crumbling trust in the Ukrainian state, attempt to organize through the only existing for them institution, the Church. Τhe film speaks of the controversial rise of the Church institution in a post-soviet state, as a force preoccupied not only with the spiritual, but also with the social and the political.

Two girls go swimming in the lake. Along the way, they are speaking about their everyday life as young women and problems of an adulthood. Swimming in the lake promises nothing special until one of the girls meets Mavka - mysterious creature from Ukrainian legends.

Cat and Bat are best friends. Every day, they watch awful television, get awful ideas, and get into an awful lot of trouble. It's a story that reveal painfully funny truths about human nature.

To support her husband, son and mother, the heroine moves abroad to work odd jobs. Whenever she returns home, she promises herself not leave anymore. But every time she doesn’t keep her word. Because every family member already has a certain habit: her mother likes to watch TV, her son wants to have stylish clothes and a phone, her husband likes to drink with friends in a garage. None of them is working. She hesitates when gets called about a new job. But watching her family makes the heroine realize: she has no other choice, except for going abroad again.

In 1941, Maria Harkavenko, a resident of the village of Parishkiv, Kyiv region, was taken to Germany for forced labor. She joined the ranks of the so-called Ostarbeiters and, with tears and sweat, wrote herself into a shameful page of human history, which will go down in textbooks under the title "Modern Slavery."

Florian Yuriev is an architect, artist, violin maker, theoretician and poet. At the age of 90 he has to master another, completely new skill. In order to save his architectural project, Kyiv’s ‘Flying Saucer’, from turning into part of a shopping mall, Florian Yuriev launches a campaign against the arbitrary power of developers in the capital.

The short film is dedicated to the outstanding Ukrainian film director. The video features archival footage in which writers Vasyl Chekhon, Viktor Shklovsky, and Armenian film director Levon Isakyan share their memories of Oleksandr Dovzhenko. It includes excerpts from Dovzhenko's films, archival photographs, and footage of memorable places in Armenia.

Kyiv’s Youth Leaving a Grocery Store is an homage to the Lumiere brothers’ classic “Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory”. Reconsidering the world’s first cinematic works, the artists address the redefining of labor and change of socio-economic formation. Thus, a producing factory turns into a consuming factory, and leisure turns into exhausting toil on the dance floor.

A cold-blooded killer is only separated by a corridor from his next victim. With each step, he is getting closer and it seems that the victim has nowhere to wait for rescue. A killer bullet always hits the target, but this time may be an exception.

The main character is a young volunteer whose old car is out of order, in any case, it is vital for him to move things from point A to B as faster as possible.

An ironic tale about seeking for mutual understanding between desperate Ukrainian porters and their alien clients during annual Rosh-Hashanah pilgrimage of Hasidim to the town of Uman'.

Lyuba works at a confectionery factory. Her son is in the war zone and there is no connection with him. Lyuba goes in search of his son in an unfamiliar territory.

Future comes now and in the next second, like waves; while the photography stays at the depth where the wave no longer moves the water particles. This depth is equal to about one half the distance between me and my grandfather. The distance between us is called a wavelength.

A young woman's search for her cultural identity is prevented by the imperialist agendas of her neighbors.

The story tells about the first days in Kyiv of a Luhansk television engineer who leaves his hometown due to the occupation. His forced vacation lasts for many years. Gradually, the war takes away everything that seemed indispensable: his hometown and home, his job and plans for the future. The only thing that begins to bother the main character is the search for justice.

Weather Forecast is an autoethnographic observation of videos from 2003, captured with a handheld home-video camera on VHS tape. Footage of the house feasts of a Tatar family intertwine with clips evidencing the destruction of the town of Shakhtarsk by the Russian troops in 2014, and with DIY videos made in 2003 by a girl imitating TV-shows. In the interaction with the TV screen the girl performs a fight between herself and Volodymyr Klitchko, followed by a weather forecast that recalls the geopolitical transformation of Ukraine since 2003. The video explores the refugee’s mental ecosystem, as it rises above interweaving roots of analogue recordings, videos populating social media, and rituals of private memory.

It's been a year since Asia's mother died in a tragic accident. While her father starts a new relationship, she is stuck in limbo of memories about her mother, unable to let go of her. Asia desperately seeks answers to life-determining questions with help from her mysterious friend.

The film is a collection of short stories of different genres - from surreal comedy to kung-fu film with elements of magic.

The evening of February 23 was the same as Alina's last 187 evenings - talking with her parents, talking with her beloved Serhiy. Alina could not have imagined that after falling asleep that happy evening, she would wake up in hell.

A young man tragically dies after trying to capture the beauty and solitude of nature in his hometown.

The fifth film in the series of documentaries "Winter that changed us". What is self-defense, directors Konstantin Klyatskin and Maria Ponomareva undertook to explain. Participants of the protests will remember how the Maidan self-defense arose. One of the heroes of the film is Thomas from the group "Mandri", who, being an active participant in Euromaidan, participated in the delight of the Ministry of Culture. The fact that people had to physically defend themselves, defending themselves from their own power, director Konstantin Klyatskin calls a phenomenon that is difficult to fit in the head...

Marat, a 40-year-old man, has been considered dead for over 3 years. He returns to his home town to restore his documents. However, his return turns out impossible.

Anatolii (Tolyan) has spent his entire life in the village of Grobyshche. He receives an invitation to his dream job, but it doesn't bring him happiness. It takes some time for him to understand what truly matters to him

School. School playground. Classes are over, and students are having fun and noisily leaving school. The rain has just ended on the street, and there are many puddles on the asphalt. And on the passage itself - the largest and widest puddle, it is almost impossible to get around without getting your feet wet. Teenagers gather in flocks and think about how to overcome the puddle. A boy in a wheelchair appears, followed by a teenage girl. It is obvious that the guy likes the girl, and he likes him. The boy smiles and deftly puts the heroine on his lap, and, to the surprise of his classmates, transports the heroine through a large puddle in a wheelchair.

Pregnant Lesia with no perspective for the future lives in expectation of a miracle. Together with her friend Olia she works as saleswoman at the kiosk at night. During the day she sleeps, so she won’t have to listen to her unemployed mother’s reproaches. That’s why she calls herself an owl. Every night while going to work Lesia thinks that something’s going to happen and her life will change. Every morning the girl goes home depressed because nothing has happened. Day and night, reality and girl’s nightmares blend. She is destined for the same losses – both in her life and her dreams.

The film is dedicated to the historical period of the XI-XIII centuries, the times of Kyivan Rus and the Galician principality.

Bohdan is turning 18 today and his dad gives him his old Lada car as a birthday present. His buddies from the trade school come visit him in the garage to check out the car. But a simple birthday takes an unexpected turn that forces Bohdan to stand his ground.

This is an observational documentary focused on one of the biggest unfinished bridge projects in the world - Podilsky Bridge in the centre of Kyiv. Its construction started nearly 25 years ago, but was halted in the late 2000s due to lack of investment and overwhelming corruption. The locals have adapted the unfinished bridge to their own needs - from sports and leisure to risky parcour-style attempts at getting from one river bank to another. In the meantime, Kyiv’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko is trying to figure out a way to complete the unfortunate project - with a little help from German politicians...