Discoveries from Ukraine World Cinema

Brand new film from the Ukrainian eastern fronts of Donetsk and Luhansk where the Russian army and pro-Russian separatists had been waging a war against Ukraine even before Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

A horse named Camelia thinks it's unfair when someone is sad. And so she goes in search of Loneliness to cheer her up. Along the way, she meets those with whom Loneliness often visits. And all together friends rush to the rescue. This is a fairy tale that even Loneliness should not be lonely.

Short documentary film-portrait of Yaryna Chorhohuz who is an openly bisexual Hospitalier and marine.

A film about a jam session in the Cherkasy courtyard under a century-old pear tree, with a presentation of new works by the creative youth of Cherkasy.

During the Day of Kamianets-Podilsky, a delegation of the Council of Europe visited the city. In the center of the plot is a hero who came to work on his first day of internship. During the solemn session of the City Council, the session hall and the entire administrative building are seized by a group of terrorists, and among the hostages is the protagonist's sister, who works here as a assistant of the mayor. The hero decides to take control of the situation and rescue the hostages, based on his previous experience of service in the VIII Khmelnytsky Special Purpose Battalion.

Maks, an average resident of the "sovok" area, who together with his childhood friend Zheka goes to one of the many entrances to help buddy inject a dose of heroin. The tension of fear of being noticed leads to Maks losing the syringe, after which Zheka mysteriously disappears. The usual "panelka" entrance is more and more like the other side of hell, because it turns out that getting out of it is not easy. In search of a friend, the fear inside Maks grows as he grows around paranormal phenomena and eventually leads him to his own heroin injection. Then only God.

The heroes of the film are four completely different people, each living his own life. But what unites them is dignity. Human dignity, dignity as citizens of Ukraine, dignity as contemporaries who want to live here and now, despite the fact that society is not quite ready to perceive them completely as they are. because they are gay. The film is based on the conversation of the four heroes of the film, as well as on the own thoughts of thought leaders. They are talking about how and what the Revolution of Dignity of 2013-2014 and the fighting in Donbas affected the heroes themselves, their sense of dignity, as well as how society has changed its opinion about the LGBTQ+ community in Ukraine.

To regain his inheritance rights, Severin Nalyvayko (unrecognized son of Prince Dmytro Sangushko and Princess Halshka Ostrozka), at the head of an army of just as disenfranchised daredevils, fights against the army of the Commonwealth for the freedom of Ukraine: only in the free Cossack Republic can he restore justice and become who he is by right.

On the beach or in the forest, when you close your eyes, you hear the sound of water, wind, rustling leaves, insects. You can still hear the motorboat, ringtone, highway, drone buzzing, plant. When you just listen, the sounds mix; gently comes the realization that all this nature is not the first or the second, it is the canvas, including you. But as soon as you open your eyes, you notice order everywhere.

A story about the most modest Ukrainian two-time Oscar winner and his obsession with cinema. Anatoliy Kokush is a legendary figure in Ukrainian cinema. Kokush's inventions are in high demand in Hollywood. With the help of technology invented and designed by Kokush himself and his studio Filmotechnik, numerous films, promotional videos, concerts, shows, and sporting events have been filmed around the world. For his work, Anatoliy Kokush has twice received awards from the American Film Academy for scientific and technical achievements (the so-called "Technical Oscar").

A motivational drama about the first candidate for the newly formed Anti-Corruption Court who returns to Ukraine, known as the most corrupt continental state in Europe, to probe himself and the system by participating in the contest.

After a night with his boyfriend, a young man goes to buy a morning coffee. He gets hit by a car and dies. How can his story unfold? What happens to a person after death? What if all the theories we used to believe in do not work?

27 y.o. Sasha missed his flight. He has to spend the whole day in the mysterious southern city, without cash, mobile phone, wi-fi and other benefits of civilization, accompanied by young Sashka, an eccentric and beautiful girl.

A film about birds and their love against the background of a catastrophe.

Jasmin and Jastrip are both 12 years old and live in Kiev. Jasmin is a girl from a loving family, who wants to excel at all cost. Jastrip is a boy, who is neglected and simply wants to find a place where he is loved. They both visit the Azovez camp which aims to raise a new class of patriotic warriors for a Ukraine of tomorrow. There the kids learn how to be real Ukrainians, to fight, to shoot, to yell, to get orders and to give orders. And over time this changes them.

Every boy has a day when he feels like he has become a man. What can awaken the adult in a young man? Andriy is a young man who lives with his mother in a provincial town. After visiting his father, whom he rarely sees, Andriy feels that the time has come to take control of his own destiny.

Mark L. Tulip was born and raised in Luhansk. He is certain that he will be buried there as well. He has children and a granddaughter, a garden, a cat called Donbas and a dog Malva. However, the political events in Ukraine in 2014 change his habitual way of living: his own family splits into smithereens. Mark L. Tulip intends to live the life on his native land but when the war comes to Luhansk, he has to escape abandoning his garden, the dog and the cat forever. Still, the hardships of new life don't come to the end.

He lives alone. He has nothing but a small house at the road. An old man loves to seat at the threshold and smoke a pipe. There are no neighbors for many miles around. Guests at his house are rare occurrence. But once a big black jeep appears near his house...

A portrait of four abandoned spaces inside the so-called “Zone of Alienation” in Chornobyl, Ukraine: a dripping swimming pool, a ruined concert hall, a mould-infested gymnasium, and an old village church. In each room, he made a recording of 10 minutes and then played the recording back into the room, recording it again. This process was repeated up to ten times. As the layers got denser, each room slowly began to unfold a drone with various overtones. For the visual representation of the four rooms, Kirkegaard explored a variety of techniques, working with layers, overexposure, and video feedback, that can be understood as analogous to his acoustical method.

In war-scarred Kyiv, Crimean Tatar activists Zarema and Eskender Bariiev raise three children under missile fire while fighting to free their occupied homeland, Crimea. Between air raids, they campaign for political prisoners like Nariman Dzhelyal and lead efforts to rescue abducted museum director Leila Ibrahimova. They also stand beside fellow refugees—Rustem, seeking justice for his teenage son killed in a strike, and Elena, mourning her fallen soldier husband. Both intimate and urgent, the film reveals a conflict within a conflict: Ukraine’s Indigenous Muslim community battling for survival, justice, and the right to return home.

The difference between a director and a pyrotechnician is that a director can afford to make a lot of mistakes. But the protagonists of the film, who are pyrotechnicians, cannot afford to make even one mistake - because any misstep could be their last.

The film’s plot is based on rehearsals at a theatre for the deaf, showing the complex working process of hard-of-hearing directors and actors. They constantly search for forms, images, and unique ways to convey the entire dramaturgy to the audience without a single word. It is reminiscent of early silent cinema — a universal, international language of gesture and movement. In addition, between rehearsals, we see the “backstage” life of the theatre: the work and daily routines of deaf lighting technicians, makeup artists, and costume designers.

A documentary musical which tells the story of war and pacifism through songs and melodies recorded in Mariupol from the end of 20th century to the beginning of 2022, when the city was erased and captured by Russia.

Each of us experiences different events in life. The same circumstances can be perceived differently by different people. Do you choose to see the glass as half empty or half full?

A rainstorm wreaks havoc on the life of an elderly couple. When the husband cannot find his wife, he goes mad with rage. But between the contemptuous insults and the affirmative silence, a deep connection emerges, the result of the couple's long and burdensome life together.

An ordinary Kyiv family—father, mother, son—faces numerous problems after receiving permission to leave for Israel. And not only organizational ones.

The film tells the story of patients at the Lviv Regional Psychiatric Clinic who are being treated with art by rehearsing Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Its main idea is to make us "normal" people think about our lives and actions in the "normal" world.

Makar is 11 years old and already grown up. The war robbed him of his childhood. Until February 24, he had a mother, father, and home. Now he lives in an orphanage and tries to understand why everything has changed so much.

As soon as the saleswoman realized that she could rule the world, she immediately raised the price of her own goods.

A short documentary.

The occupation of Bucha by Russian troops in February-March 2022 will forever remain etched in the memories and hearts of the people who lived and live here. But memories of this period must not be lost in the passage of time, as they serve as a reminder to the world of the terrorist regime. This film is about people who, despite the grief they have experienced, inspire us not to give up, but to work together to achieve victory. These are stories that evoke pain and empathy.

She wants him, and he wants a computer game. Who will win?

A story about how ordinary guys went to defend their homeland, Ukraine. The film depicts the life of one of the first volunteer battalions, which was formed after the start of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

An experimental film, bringing René Magritte's painting "Au revoir" to life.

This short was made in Poland residency near Lublin. During 2 weeks i drew 300 guache colors drawings on paper without any digital equipment. Scan them afterwards and make this movie without any digital editing.

Defense of Debaltseve. The brutal battle that unfolded in early 2015 and ended on February 18-19, when Ukrainian troops had to leave the base. This documentary tells the truth about one of the bloodiest and most controversial episodes of the war in Ukraine. Incredible stories of feats, facts of heroism and betrayal. Little-known details and evidence of participants of the events. The dark and terrible truth, real story about modern heroes.

At the turn of the 20th century, Sofia Okunevska fights gender discrimination to study and practice medicine. Against societal barriers, she earns her medical degree and becomes one of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s most respected physicians.

A hopelessly dreamy young man, convinced that an evil corporation is behind all his failures, stumbles upon a turning point when his suspicious neighbor accidentally drops a mysterious business card. Seizing the moment, he finally sets out to confront the enemy he's always blamed for his misfortune.

After the war in Ukraine derailed their lives, a young married couple, a former environmental officer and a displaced family join others on a new path to become professional deminers.

The film is about how the occupation has changed and sometimes broken the lives of people living on the peninsula. Hromadske journalist Natalia Humeniuk arrived in Crimea on the day of the so-called ‘referendum’ on 16 March 2014, where she talked to people in Bakhchisarai, Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol. Since then, the journalist has returned to the peninsula at least once a year: she talked about the first political prisoners, the beginning of repressions against Crimean Tatars, the economic conditions and everyday life of the residents of the occupied Crimea, and what it was like to be a Ukrainian in the occupied Crimea or even an activist of the ‘Crimea is ours’ movement who began to criticise the occupation administration. After 5 years, Hromadske journalists returned to the people whose stories were told in the first months of the annexation.

Over the many years together, this couple has gone through a lot, but once he forgot about the flowers on their anniversary, life would never be the same again.

Ukrainian artistic avant-garde of the 20s and one of its founders - Oleksandra Ekster. Talking about the artist's work, the baroque-futuristic style of Ukrainian origin, the authors of the film seek to create an image of creative imagination, synthesizing metaphors of historical events and whims of fantasy.

Documentary film explores the development of Russian propaganda in cinematography and its impact on Russian society. The author tells the story of modern Russia, using footage from popular Russian feature films and series, mixing them with informative Russian content (news, political talk shows, surveys of Russians on the street, and interviews of Russian cinematographers). In his research film, Kornii comes to a terrible conclusion - Russian feature cinema is absolute propaganda of war, xenophobia, and chauvinism, not only concerning Ukraine but also the other peoples (Georgians, Tajiks, Americans, Jews, etc.) and culture in Russia is not «out of politics.»

The most important thing in Liuba's life is her daughter Katia, who plans to move to Kyiv on the eve of her mother's birthday. Liuba's anniversary recedes into the background, because she thinks only of one thing: how to keep her daughter close.

We see impressive videos of the work of drone operators in the media every day. The painstaking work that is done to prepare for it is usually left behind the scenes. And we are talking not just about organizing the flight, but also such trivial things as, for instance, proper arrangement of positions. A well-dug shelter saves lives - this rule is the same both for infantry and for drone pilots. One day in the life of the strike drone unit of the 47th Magura Separate Mechanised Brigade involves digging trenches, joking, combat missions, eating sandwiches under shelling, and digging trenches again. Because the better a fighted digs, the longer he lives.

Before the full-scale invasion began, cinematographer Serhii Mykhalchuk was making feature films that were watched in Ukraine and around the world. His work includes about 40 films, 4 of which were nominated for an Oscar and received dozens of world awards for cinematography. However, with Russia's attack on Ukraine, Serhii Mykhalchuk's focus has completely shifted to non-fictional, real-life stories. Having picked up a camera on the first day of the invasion, he still records the events and participants of the war every day. This is the story of an artist who stood up to defend the country at a crucial moment for the country, and a warrior whose main weapon remains creativity.

There's been an ongoing war for months now. Seventeen-year-old Dmytro and his mother are anxiously awaiting winter. But is this their only problem? Or has fate prepared another challenge for them?

​"Killing Pavel," a documentary produced by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its Ukrainian partner, Slidstvo.Info​,​ reveals new details about the 2016 killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet. The Belarusian’s reporting had challenged authorities from Minsk to Moscow and Kyiv until he was killed in a car bomb in the Ukrainian capital in July 2016. The film features new information about his death that police never found, raising questions about the nature of the official investigation​.​

A successful dancer from the capital relocated to a transcarpathian village, escaping from horrors of the war in Ukraine. She forced to change her common life radically. She starts working in the farmer's field in a countryside, but her artistic nature prevails over the circumstances.

Short animated story of Shchedryk, known by many as the popular holiday song Carol of the Bells but originally written as a traditional Ukrainian folk song, heralding the coming of spring. Shchedryk's well-wishing lyrics tell the tale of a swallow flying between households, proclaiming the plentiful year that the family will have, inspiration for the tale of Little Wings, which follows a lonesome swallow's adventure to guide carol singers to a family in need of renewed hope. The allegorical 2D handcrafted animation uses Ukrainian culture and creativity to inspire hope and joy in all.

This story is about the Fifth King of Atlantis. According to legend Azus Averus had a magic stone called the Pendulum of Time. With its help, he could travel through time. Once the King tried to change his past. He traveled so far back in time that he met the nine creators of the world. This changed his fate and the fate of his city for many hundreds of years.

An old lady dreamed for all her life of visiting the French capital. She collected figurines of the Eiffel Tower, kept postcards and photographs depicting the Parisian streets and landscapes. And on the evening of life she finally got a ticket that will take her to the city of dreams. There comes a time when she goes to a long-awaited journey.

The first cartoon about the adventures of a dog named Movie. On New Year's Eve, Movie saves Father Frost's gifts from hooligan cats and receives an invitation to go to the holiday as the Snow Maiden.

Sometimes, in order to learn more, you just need to keep quiet.

True stars live in the darkness and sometimes you have to try really hard to see them.

Film hurls us into a sensually lo-fi, subterranean maelstrom of visual and aural sex-positive excess that recalls (and rivals) Hieronymous Bosch, Derek Jarman and the Kuchars.

Anna is a teacher at the university. Since recently, she pursues a young student. She is attracted to him.. What is the reason and how strong is the woman's obsession could be?

A small girl bored while staying alone with her busy Grandpa in his house. She tries in any possible ways to grab his attention, but something goes wrong…