Discoveries from Ukraine World Cinema

The film explores the world of the Kyiv State Archive—how its contents intertwine with personal stories of those who collect and store this data, showing the experience of accumulating knowledge, building a bridge between the present and the past. It seeks to highlight a sense of humanity in society, promote the importance of archiving, and address the challenge posed by the ongoing information war: can knowledge alone prevent future tragedies, or is there anything else needed to avert them?

Denis and three strangers find themselves in an experiment in which they must give meaning to the lives of people on a spaceship. Will they be able to work together, and what will be the price of completing the task?

A film about the history of the Kyivnaukfilm film studio.

The first optimist and last WWII soldier of a 600-year-old Transcarpathian village, 91-year-old librarian and chess player Yuriy Kurucza carols his stories of life, amours and homeland.

The film was made in 2015, shortly after Russia annexed Crimea and ignited the war in Donbas. The confrontation between supporters of an independent Ukraine and European integration on the one hand and «separatists» who wanted to join Russia on the other strongly affected the city of Kharkiv. In the film, the sounds of violence from the past break into scenes of the relatively peaceful life that followed. The public places in the city center of Kharkiv where activists fought some years ago were destroyed by Russian artillery in this year. The film was extended to include images of this destruction because the current war is a continuation of the outbreaks from the past and will forever change our future.

The documentary "Crimea. Liberation" tells the story of a special operation of the Security Service of Ukraine in Crimea in 1994, which lasted more than three months. Back then, the SBU's Alpha special unit stopped a rebellion by Russian proxies who sought to separate the peninsula from Ukraine overnight. The film features the direct participants of the special operation: the first Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Yevhen Marchuk; SSU Lieutenant General Vasyl Krutov; SSU Major General Vitaliy Romanchenko; SSU Colonels Serhiy Ropaev and Pavlo Dubrov, Colonel Ivan Yakubets, as well as Valeriy Kozyarsky, Refat Chubarov and Oleksandr Paliy.

With the beginning of the war, Katia decided to leave her hometown and take her mother. But mother is getting her nails done.

The personal and intimate story of the friendship of three women and the struggle to live their everyday life while studying abroad in Scotland as a full-scale war takes place in their home country in Ukraine, where their families and close friends are.

What to take, what to leave? How important are material possessions when you’re trying to save your life? Packages from Ukraine – filled with everything and nothing – wait patiently under a bridge to be found, while a voice stirs memories of frivolous and treasured personal effects, in an apparent heart-breaking farewell letter to Kyiv.

On the eve of New Year celebrations, everyone is getting ready for the upcoming feast, dressing up Christmas trees and preparing gifts. The boy, who lives in one of the cities, looks forward to the moment when he opens the colorful boxes with surprises inside prepared for him. One of them was a kaleidoscope, which opened a new world to the hero, full of tales, colors and wonders.

Dmytro Bahnenko, a journalist in Kherson, southern Ukraine, spent three months secretly recording his city's resistance to the Russian occupation.

Kyiv in 2022. A car races at breakneck speed through the city at dawn. Filmed from a subjective camera angle in a single unedited shot, this remale of Claude Lelouch's "C'était un rendez-vous" captures the emotions in a state of emergency caused by the war.

These are captured moments from the life of a Ukrainian industrial giant from the East, which no longer exists due to the Russian offensive. A story of heroic energy workers at the last operating power plant in eastern Ukraine, only 10 km from the frontline. Under constant shelling, they risk their lives to keep the lights on until the plant's destruction and forced evacuation, echoing historical parallels from 1941.

A short documentary about border guarding.

While the specialists were inserting a meter-long tube into me to perform a gastroscopy, I was thinking, of course, about art, or rather about some stereotypes. First: the artist must be hungry. As you can see in the video, my stomach is empty, so I'm really hungry. But if the artist does not have to take tests or swallow a meter hose, then he should not be hungry. I find this stereotype more disgusting than the most disgusting moments in this film. The second: the artist shows his inner world, literally so.

The entire population of Crimean Tatars was deported en masse to remote parts of the Soviet Union in May 1944. The film tells the story of the difficulties and hopes of a large family that returned to their homeland half a century later.

A young girl's dream comes true—she appears on the cover of Photomorgana magazine. And it gets even better—she becomes a real model and quickly achieves success in the glossy world she has always wanted to be a part of. But this new world is not as welcoming as it might seem at first glance. From episode to episode, the heroine becomes increasingly convinced that she cannot achieve true happiness in this fake world. Finally, she decides to leave it. But this world is already waiting for new victims.

This animation loop was made for my Instagram page. Film was made on paper using guache colors and digitaly processing in Photoshop.

Yulia and Natalia are two actresses from Kyiv who have escaped the war. Since their arrival in Bologna, Italy, they have been struggling trying to rebuild their lives. News breaks: in Ukraine, theatres, closed due to the conflict, are reopening. This makes them decide to embark on a return journey to question their future.

A father takes his sons out on an ice fishing trip. The younger one is happy to spend time with his dad, while the older one keeps a deep resentment towards his father, who once abandoned the family. At one point, the trip turns into a challenge in which everyone faces a difficult choice.

In 2022, the young Ukrainian director Katia found herself in Prague, but this isn't just another tale of immigrant efforts. After two years abroad, Katya embarks on a candid journey of self-discovery.

A new member of the Cheka receives his first assignment, holding in his hands a warrant to evict a peasant from his hut. The young man, at nineteen years old, must dare to commit murder, and not just one.

A documentary project about the collapse of the USSR.

Part 1: Rabbit tried to learn how to stand up for himself from a medical owl Part 2: Hedgehog tries to impress a fish Part 3: Animals are annoyed by a woodpecker and their children

A young guy named Dan, wakes up in a dark room, and a hologram appears before him, displaying video fragments of memories from his life.

The fantasy story tells the story of a girl, Ulyana, who has been living with a creepy witch, who is simply called the Old Woman ever since she was a child. One day, strange things happen: her friend disappears, turning into a tree, and a strange Gray Wolf arrives in the forest, and his shadow refuses to follow. Then the Old Woman sends Ulyana in the middle of the night to a corner of the Dense Forest where she never goes, and demands that Ulyana bring her the Witch's Book.

To rejoice or to suffer, to live or to die, to go mad or to be happy? And what will the Voice tell you?

Massacre on the beach. To stop the monster, Hand and Captain go on a sea hunt.

The third film of documentary trilogy «Black Candle of the Bright Road. In memory of Vasyl Stus» covers the events from the return from Kolyma in 1979 to the reburial on November 19, 1989. Interviews with the last cellmate of the writer Leonid Borodin, former political prisoners Vasyl Ovsienko, Levko Lukyanenko provide an opportunity to recreate the last episodes of Vasyl Stus's life: the conflict with Romashov, a fictional report about Stus's behavior in the cell, his emotional explosion due to slander, the announcement of a hunger strike, solitary confinement, night from September 3 to 4, 1985.

The third cartoon about the adventures of a dog named Movie. This time, Movie and her wards Stas and Lesya take part in car races on a homemade car converted from a bicycle.

The second cartoon about the adventures of a dog named Movie. On the recommendation of Santa Claus, Movie gets a job as a nanny in a family with two children. Stas and Lesya are very playful children, but Movie is also not a blunder.

A #BABYLON`13 short.

Nobody, can even come close to imagine the way Ukrainians looked some 4 000 years ago, because most of the people are certain that Ukrainians had not yet exist. But they have. And approximately 2000 years BC they have found themselves on the verge of extinction. That was the beginning of a five-hundred year apocalypse, a period of time that scholars for many years later referred to as the short ice age... That time the story of population of contemporary Ukraine begun. And the truth just have been discovered with the help of sophisticated scientific technologies of studies of human DNA.

Minimalistic animation about ancestral roots, youth and love made in a folk style with the use of Ukrainian ornaments, visual images that correspond to the story line of the music composition of the same name by the band "Yurcash" which accompanies the animation work.

A day in the life of an elderly couple. A day that was special for the two of them.

The protagonist of the film is Igor Smirnov. He is a bank employee, but our hero is very bad at combining work and personal life. Most recently, a beloved girl left Igor. Igor intends to return his beloved at any cost. In order to achieve a positive result, the protagonist of the comedy comes up with a very non-standard solution. Taking a close journalist friend as his partner, Igor goes to a corporate party at the house of his impudent rival. They are someone Vlad Vishnevsky. But far from Igor Smirnov appears on the threshold of the house. Vlad was pleasantly surprised and at the same time shocked when Lucy Zaitseva, a newly minted singer, appeared before the guests. But what is our hero up to?

A mysterious corporation «Synthetic Love» offers an unusual service: bringing back lost love. With a warranty. Corinna turns to the company in an attempt to get back the boyfriend who left her. She has no idea that the company's methods of work are developed by a psychopath killer.

Short documentary film-portrait of Anastasiia Konfederat who is an openly lesbian volunteer and air reconnaissance specialist.

Two friends want to have fun at night in Kyiv. Under the spotlight of nightlife, class inequality and injustice become ruthless towards young boys and their desires.

The heroes of the film, a father and a son, seem to have lost their sense of time. Their life flows day by day, from one year to the next. They are separated by space and united by love. Two individuals, who may never see each other again.

Does art have the right path?

He got to Kyiv from Luhansk through the Crimea. He came to us because he just had to live somewhere. Then he moved, because we could no longer be close, we could not find a common language. We are different - but have we really tried to understand each other?

During World War II the Kyiv Film Studio relocates to Ashgabat, which will provide a safe haven for many Soviet filmmakers. This is where, thousands of miles from the front line, one of the most famous war films in the history of cinema will be made.

A teenager named Aditya attends the Autism Care Nepal Society’s School of inclusive education. Together with his mother - Jyoti, the boy spends every day of his life. It is not easy for him to make new friends, because his form of autism implies an extraordinary response to noise, sounds, and strangers. The school teachers and those who are close to Adityas, strive to prepare this boy for the independent adult life. But in the school - Aditya is not alone.

A young scientist, Roman Vitalievich Voziy, is engaged in scientific activities and aspires to become a professor. His difficult relationship with his wife, Khrystia Parmenivna, who constantly demands money, blackmails and manipulates him because of her love for their six-year-old son Natusia, is a hindrance. Roman sincerely falls in love with the actress Olga. She reciprocates his feelings... But his paternal instinct is stronger than anything else. The film is based on the drama “Natus“ by Volodymyr Vynnychenko.

Life of Hannusia and Dmytro, who have been married for over thirty years in a remote village hidden in the midst of the Carpathian Mountains, has changed since Dmytro lost his leg in the recent war in the East of Ukraine. But the couple stays resilient to all the hardship, cherish love to each other, their children and land, and remain unbroken and calm like the mountains around them.

The mother and the girlfriend of the dead soldier are going through a difficult path together, from grief and mutual hatred to forgiveness and acceptance, trying to find the meaning of life without a loved one.

Anna, a student of psychology, returns home early after a really bad day and finds that her roommate Lina works as Mistress sometimes. Lina convinces Anna to try her first BDSM session. After the session, Anna chooses BDSM as the topic for her dissertation. In each episode Anna discovers a new side of the wonderful world of BDSM.

Veteran war reporter John Sweeney and Byline TV filmmaker Caolan Robertson hit the road with war photographer Paul Conroy and journalist Zarina Zabrisky to gather compelling evidence for the use of illegal weapons and the torture of civilians in Ukraine, as well as examining the reality of life and conditions faced by ordinary people on Ukraine's eastern front.

A look at young lovers and their delicate relationship. And about making a hard choice between the life of your lover of the life of an elderly neighbour.

The plot is based on the story about a girl, who, having failed in art-projects gets a job in leading law firm. She by all the means tries to fit in new cruel and tough world of business, to achieve a fast success by following advises of quirky development coach. However her illusions of quick success are broken, she faces meanness and guile, and has to choose - to accept her defeat or at last to take responsibility for her own life.

Your family can accept your otherness. But can you accept the normality of your family? Your family can accept that you are not like others. But could you accept that your family is normal? Its the story of one coming out that has lasted for a year.

Marina is a 35-year-old woman from Odessa. Daughter, wife, mother and breadwinner of the whole family. Despite the frequent change in life of black and white stripes, she never gives up. The father's illness decays all relatives, but not Marina, for her this is another new test.

Many people believe that acting is red carpets, star-studded festivals, expensive dresses, and luxurious tuxedos. But what is behind the glamour and glitz? What does it take to become an actor? The path to glory is long and arduous. Not all talent is destined for fame. Not all talent deserves fame. A lucky few reach the top, become recognisable, wealthy, and beloved. Many more live anonymous lives, never fulfilling their dreams. This film was created on the basis of video self tapes and video business cards of actors that they themselves post on YouTube.

Ilona has just got married and goes to the celebration party in the other city. But on the way to that place she stops to pee…

A part of the 4-piece project about a state of mind that you experience when you are surfing Internet way too long, about visual information overdose, about seeing hundreds, or even thousands of images every day, which travel from real world to our consciousness. If dream deprivation exceeds normal borders - the flow of images appears, even if you close your eyes for a moment. This state is painful but at the same time beautiful. This experience seemed like the creation of always available image library and is holding ambition for rapid consumption of new information, which is being dictated by speed of modern devices.

Ukrainian actor Pavlo Aldoshyn played the lead role in the movie "Sniper. White Raven" based on the real events of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Pavlo joined the Armed Forces. At the authors' request, the soldier returned from the frontline to Kyiv for the first time in order to play a civilian.