Discoveries from Ukraine World Cinema

Based on the play by Mykola Kulish, this film is about the repression of the Ukrainian intelligentsia in the 1930s.

A story about the dramatic double life of Kyiv's underclass. Based on the novel of the same name by Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky.

I have to send myself... but every morning I have to start all over again. From the beginning of the world, even the universe.

The story of 17-year-old Daria Bezkosta, who has suffered from cerebral palsy since childhood. Seven years ago, she began painting. The film is about her daily life, the problems she faces, and art.

Reflections on the Lumière brothers' first film and modern warfare. The first film is like a dream of returning to a slow and unhurried life. Without explosions and combat operations. Without troop movements and deaths. It is a dream of not seeing someone else's blood on your military uniform. Of not seeing blood at all and removing the dirty pixel from yourself.

The story of a young man who lives a simple and rather unremarkable life, every day of which is filled with mundane events and is indistinguishable from the next. But when night falls, he gets out of bed in a state of somnambulism and begins a journey through the city, discovering a new, completely different world.

A collection of letters about home, flowers as a language of love, and relationships that blossom despite distance and war.

Each of us has a secret desire. But we may not even realize what lies deep within our souls and what we truly desire... Perhaps it is not at all what we imagined.

Daria, Hanna, Kira, Olexa, Rost, Sasha, Vlada, Vlada, Vesna, and Zakhar are ten teenagers who like Radiohead, making art, swimming, dating, watching films, and hanging out with their friends. They also live close to the front line.

Film was made on A4 paper using guache colors.

The theme of the film is the origin of intellectual and spiritual potential from Ukraine. The history of Ukraine knows four powerful waves of emigration. The latter, from the 90s, gathered almost the largest number of citizens. Quantitative estimates are still controversial. As well as who these people are - emigrants, migrants, or, as they say in Ukraine, "workers". Behind each figure is a living person with personal dramas. Among the representatives of the fourth wave are many scientists and artists. One of them is the hero of our film - Volodymyr Zubytsky: composer, conductor, accordionist, musician.

Sergeant Buryi died from his wounds, Vadym from Borodyanka lost five family members, and Tetyana left her home in Bakhmut. Filmed by volunteer and Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier Roman Ostrovskyi, it shows pain, courage, and humanity during war.

The short film artistically highlights the centuries-long battle for freedom and independence. At all historical times, Ukraine has given birth to warriors whose worldview was based on the desire for freedom and the willingness to give up everything for it, even their lives. Different generations of warriors depicted in the film are manifestations of the same tradition, in which the fight for freedom is the most important principle. It reveals a centuries-old history through the prism of warriors who constantly face their deaths in a battle and a kind of dialog, which the film shows through a chess game. Realizing that the outcome is predetermined, the warriors defy fate anyway.

What did Crimean Tatars go through when returning to Crimea after decades of exile in the late 1980s? The right to buy a house, get a residence permit without which they cannot be hired - these rights were ones that Crimean Tatars had to fight for through numerous protests, constant pressure, and negotiations with local officials. They faced blatant racism on a daily basis. The government-controlled media pummeled the population with propaganda. Yet pickets from Moscow to Taman and throughout Crimea, petitions, peaceful marches, self-immolation, and, finally, the self-return of land, which the authorities called "squatting", all this eventually worked. This film is the story of an entire people's return, a story of victory in opposition to the system and thanks to cohesion. However, many had to lose their home for the second time after the Russian occupation of the peninsula in 2014. Veterans of the Crimean Tatar movement as well as immigrants are the heroes of this movie.

“Our society is not ready for democracy,” one of the Internal Troops of Ukraine servicemen says on the Maidan in 2014. For the first time, those standing on the other side of the barricades are speaking up on the film screen. The citizens whose profession is to protect the democratic rule in the state, and who were unable to talk openly due to their uniforms. In this chronicle of the Kyiv confrontation and interviews, the director tries to find out how the people under uniforms are dealing with their right to choose, upon which democracy is based, while the war in eastern Ukraine unfolds.

This is a documentary work shot during a trip to art residences from different regions of Ukraine, but at some point this trip became an unconscious pursuit of the sea. You're going to see a film that doesn't know what it's about. What this world is about and what all these people are about. You will see a long road that lasted a month and a half. Which was difficult and sometimes unbearable. A million sounds and phenomena that we come across from time to time, but maybe we don't see the connection between them. A film that finds itself. A story that tries to be separate, but life puts its points. A depiction of a reality that is always around us, but do we know it?

This film is my personal portal to my great-grandma Feodosia, my ancestors and time as a whole. Bridging five generations and more than a century, it created a new family archive of light and shadows on 16 mm film.

A man and a woman really like watching TV.

If the phenomenon can be explained by human stupidity, then there is no need to look for another explanation.

Due to the war in the country, many people of all ages have stopped living their normal, peaceful lives because of constant psychological stress. This situation provokes psychological disorders, increased aggression, and, accordingly, leads to negative consequences in our society. This film is intended to lend a helping hand to anyone who is in a tense psychological state. We want to put people in a positive frame of mind and help them feel happy even during the war.

The story takes place in the year of 2022, which is also called The Year of the Tiger in Eastern calendars. When the full-scale invasion breaks out, the main character Oleksandr decides to stay in his hometown Kharkiv, in the Northern Saltivka area of the city. Now all of his surroundings consist of just his pets and the six neighbors. During one of the shellings a missile hits Oleksandr's apartment, and all he is left with now is his camera, which he uses to tell us his story.

This is a tribute to doctors, volunteers and many ordinary people of Ukraine. Those who do not draw attention to themselves and their help goes unnoticed at times. They constantly put in work where it’s most needed, because they feel like they are the ones who need it the most. Need to do it. Need to help. For the sake of their humanness and their honor. Rivne City Hospital. An ordinary clinic in an ordinary Ukrainian town. This is about those people who care. Those who consider Ukrainian land their home.

Something obscure is happening to a young married couple in their isolated luxurious apartment- their daily routine turns to an abrupt absurdist game of lost connection.

A tale about a Cossack named Khvesko, who came across a hut, where rich people were nicely treated and full-fed. He was taken for a poor traveler and was offered only a glass of water. In fact, Khvesko was a real Cossack hetman, who protected the poor from rich and powerful men.

A documentary project that explores the origin and evolution of Ukrainian swearing from the times of Kyivan Rus to the present, regional differences, how it differs from the "Russian mat", how different professions swear, cult obscene quotes and swearing as a way of protest.

Since 2014, after the armed invasion of Crimea by the Russian Federation, pro-Ukrainian residents of the peninsula have been persecuted for political, religious and ethnic reasons. The documentary is an almanac of stories about the illegal detentions and searches. These are stories told by children who have lost their main characters in life for a long time or even forever - their parents.

Scenes from Kyiv Maidan fixed between November 2013 and February 2014. A collective portrait of the people who came to the Maidan to protest against the dictatorship .Faceless crowd here has specific faces of those who fight for dignity.

A story of about crisis of exhausting in the life of creative artist in advertising business.

This work was created during the walk on Drahobrat mountain.

Follows the first month of the Russian-Ukrainian war, also features military experts and Ukrainian military leaders.

Puppet animation about a city of light bulbs. The existence of this remarkable city depends on one big lantern. Every day, a lamplighter switches it on and off. One day someone steals the light bulb from the lantern.

A life story of a bottle that can express emotions, feel and dream.

There are places on Earth where the gravity is enormous. In these places, time and space mix and produce the feeling of infinite existence. Life, people, and objects surrounding you merge into an unknown, extraordinary substance. This is a story about one of such places. However, what is the meaning of gravity? Does it have a beginning or an end? Is it possible to comprehend it, or is it only available to one's senses?

Taras is 35 years old and he lives with his grandmother in an old building of Kyiv. He is in a difficult situation socially and professionally. He has however a great passion, fly fishing. A passion that he will try to share with Luda, a young woman met on Facebook.

By night, Liudmyla works as a toilet cleaner in a fashionable music club where she meets obnoxious and spoiled people who disrespect her because of her job. During the day time she looks after her husband, who is sick with Alzheimer disease. The contrast between her professional life, in close proximity to the very rich and their over the top surroundings, and the modest manner in which she lives her life slowly leads Liudmyla to a mental break-down. The only amusement or release that she has - is her platonic attraction towards an angelic and sexy women singer - who herself has no interest towards Liudmyla whatsoever. When Liudmyla can't bare this dull routine any longer, she begins to fantasize that she can run away from her responsibilities toward her husband, to leave him in the "swarm" of other "unwanted people".

Slowny are not elephants. They are fairy creatures, who live happily on the shores of the Crystal Sea. Slowny wear white stockings, wear hats (even in bed), adore cocoa, know the art and music. Their name means "slow", because these bizarre personalities are in no hurry. They are some what similar to us, because we are all a bit of the slowny.

The story of a sister and her brother.

A story about a bird that wanted to eat a worm, and a worm that really didn't want to be eaten...

Tragicomedic story about rescue attempt and its consequences based and inspired mostly by cheesy yet charming Superman movies from 70-80s. It is a simple straightforward story with a cheerful and a little bit nostalgic atmosphere contrasted by a grimm and sudden twist.

The film reveals the phenomenon of one of the most famous Ukrainian bands in the world.

A story about the life of an ordinary Ukrainian village, with its sorrows and joys. The story is about the simple life of rural people who think little about the past and the future, but live in the present-here and now, doing specific everyday things, slowly adapting to the changes coming from the outside world.

Everything in Sergiy’s immigrant life is temporary except his incurable love for his motherland. He has a Canadian passport but his soul belongs to Ukraine. Despite having lived in Quebec for 15 years he still wants to go back.

Our souls are like swans. We have only one true love in life. And this love is stronger than distance and time. Sometimes even the boundary between the worlds is not an obstacle for it.

The main heroes of the film are the young people from Kharkiv, a city located in the Eastern part of Ukraine. Reaching their early twenties coincided with the breakout of the war in the neighboring region of Donbass. An LGBT activist and poet, a fashion model, a group of street artists, a creator of a computer game - all of them are artists or working in the creative industries, typical for a peaceful life of a big city. However, the proximity to the war affects each of the characters and their activities. Heroes react and reflect political events through their specific relationships with the urban space and the reality of the social media.

An ordinary bully Tolik gets on an ordinary suburban electric train. He successfully hides from the conductor and then takes a seat, and waits for his friend. After a while, Tolik falls asleep as the train leaves. At the last second, Tolik’s friend, bully Valera, runs into the railway carriage and wakes the hero. They sit down together to enjoy their journey with alcohol. Suddenly, the bullies see huge delicious chickens outside. Valera decides to get food by jumping out of the window. The next thing he knows, dumbfounded Tolik is sitting in the company of roosters. Soon enough, he becomes one of them. Screaming, Tolik wakes up at the same place where he fell asleep. A joyful bully meets Valera, who offers him a drink. However, Tolik refuses and runs out of the train.

A documentary film about a worker of the school cloakroom.

A terrible accident happens on the New Year's Eve: the girl is taken to the intensive care, while her friend becomes mute after the shock. The parents try to find the way out of this situation, but first, they need to face their own problems and understand the value of life with the help of the cutting edge of technology.

Viktor, an architect student from Kyiv, loves Barcelona and the Gaudí work. He wants to get a scholarship in Barcelona, so he’s waiting for a reply from Spanish university. While in Barcelona they decide whether to grant a scholarship to Ukrainian student, he’s going down fast… Will the letter reach him too late?

The concert’s musical program is a fusion of women’s stories, expressed through songs and contemporary dance performances. The audience will hear both Tina’s favorite songs from her new album, “Wait It Out” and “Your Sins,” as well as her well-known hits.

Set in the town of Bolhrad in Ukraine's Odesa region, this four-year documentary follows three military wives — Olia, Olena, and Nina — as they wait for their husbands to return from war, revealing the courage, resilience, and sacrifice shared by the families of the 88th Marine Battalion.

After suffering a terrible tragedy in his family, Mark tries to find meaning in life and move forward to become the person he has always wanted to be.

The film is a panorama of an epoch in detail and fragments of time, seen through the eyes of one of the oldest documentary filmmakers in Ukraine, Israel Goldstein, director, cinematographer, screenwriter. This film covers the period from the Civil War of 1918 to Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War.

Museum Underwater explores the dreams and childhood memories of a young girl named Norma. Through different styles of animation and lyrical storytelling, the film transports us to an underwater world where angels, St. Jacob, Walt Whitman, great-grandmother Gala, and secret miracles come to life.

Collection of oral evidence of direct (in Ukraine) or indirect eyewitnesses of this brutal war (in Europe), the author's artistic musical and poetic interpretation of events, intellectual reflection - i.e. awareness and rethinking of one's own actions that make up the content of intellectual activity - all this will give a special meaning to described events.

The First Detachment of the 8th Regiment UASOF an elite unit forged through years of combat experience. Through personal narratives, real battlefield chronicles, and symbolic cinematic framing, the film explores not only military operations, but the philosophy of the warrior - his mindset, responsibility, brotherhood, and the choices that define him.

A young woman arrives at a quiet countryside house she has rented to spend some time alone. While filming a casual video tour for a friend, she notices a strange man standing at the edge of the forest, silently watching her. When she tries to confront him, the man begins to mirror her every movement with unsettling precision. As the distance between them slowly closes, the boundaries between inside and outside – safety and intrusion – begin to dissolve.