Discoveries from Ukraine World Cinema

A short documentary and poetic essay about the meaning of life during the war when you believed in "never again".

On February 24 at 6:31 a.m. for many, the morning began with calls from their partners saying: Please don't panic, but they started bombing Kyiv. At that moment a new reality started. The reality full of horror and pain. This documentary is about the experiences of queer people during the war.

Dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum, where the signatory countries guaranteed Ukraine the preservation of territorial integrity in exchange for the renunciation of nuclear weapons. In 2014, when the annexation of Crimea by Russia took place, the signatory countries accepted the occupation. On December 5, 2019, our creative team carried out an intervention at the Museum of Modern Art in Odesa, in the form of an illegal installation of the "I Want More" exhibit in the museum's exposition. The purpose of the film and the intervention is to show the people of Ukraine and the international community that attempts to appease Russia and make concessions to it will only lead to new aggression and new occupation of territories.

The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare said: "All the world's a stage. And all the men and women merely players.» After observing, I can say that the whole world is a cellar and people are icicles in it. A few more moments and we will disappear - melt. Or maybe it's not about how much we have left? It is only necessary not to miss an important point. The film is a poetic film, a kaleidoscopic fairy tale journey to an old cellar, in which one winter morning, for strange reasons, the walls from the inside were covered with a thick layer of icicles.

A heart-breaking chat between an ordinary Ukrainian man, compelled to join the defense forces on the front-line of the 2022 Russian War, and his emerging girlfriend who anxiously follows his journey as war rages all around him doing what she can to help.

When the girl returns home, her husband drives her away with her things. The embarrassed girl goes on a trip to the city to find an answer on how to live. On her way, the girl meets lovers who give her a balloon; a couple with cloth-covered faces; suicide; a man performing a funeral ritual and mentally ill in a straitjacket. Who are all these people and will they help the abandoned girl find the answer to her question?

Short animated film about the Ukrainian icebreaker research ship "Noosfera" (translated name Noosphere) and that Ukraine is part of the scientific world community, researchers of Antarctica and the world's oceans and climate.

On a high mountain by the ocean there's a small town called Amberwood, in caves of which life has been developing for many years. Its residents did not realize that in the meantime another life form, quite different from the human one, was developing just under their feet. Years went by, and the story of the cave creatures became an urban myth that local kids used to tell in order to scare their younger siblings, and only the older generation living in this town knew well that all of that was true.

The protagonist of the film works at a metallurgical plant, lives in a small town. Allowing him to spy on his routine life, he talks about his career in large-scale production, the difficulties and responsibilities, the combination of work and family life. From an ordinary story, his words turn into reflections on various problems of survival in modern realities. But he does not lose optimism and ends everything with an inspiring phrase.

Didko (aka the devil) is a character of Ukrainian folk demonology. The narrative conveys that didko is waiting for everyone who misbehaves and will torture them. Only this work doesn't depict them in a traditional way, with little horns upon the pig's face, with goat legs and covered in fur. Instead, it suggests their appearance as humans, implying that anyone could be a sinner and anyone could be a devil.

I always think about death. Realizing the fact that we all are going to die give me power to move and fight my fears. I was made with clay that became alive. Then, this clay will die. I was made out of clay and will be turned to dust again. I am Earth. I can create new life too. I am passion, ideas, energy, sex. My body grow, bloom. My body is changing while I am alive. It will continue changing after my death. Therefore, it is dying all the time. When I die my body will continue changing. They will give chance to another types of life, like bugs and worms, bacterias. Every type of my physical being is creating life. Conclusion is - everything around is life and is alive. Even death is life.

Katia Hello Vadym Died Didkivskyi Vadym Yuriyovych "Cherkasy". "AZOV Kyiv" Special Operations Forces. Сame to the defense of the country as a volunteer after the full-scale invasion of russia on February 24, 2022. He didn't have any military experience, but he had a pure heart and a strong spirit. At the age of 26, on May 1, 2022 he heroically died defending the country in the Mariupol direction.

A short story about a unique history textbook written by only one of the letters from the alphabet- Z.

The film is about the night of February 23, 2022. Casual Ukrainian families are depicted spending their evening routine in their cozy homes. But the atmosphere is becoming more and more disturbing — the storm is coming.

A series of short absurd stories about relationships.

Yulia is a worker in a cafe. She watches how an ordinary visitor sits at the table, but this time he is upset. Children run to the cafe, go to the main character, she gives them candy for good entries in the diary. After a while, a mysterious visitor appears and gives her the "Book of Complaints and Suggestions" and says that what she writes there will come true. She accepts the gift with disbelief.

Do you know how the unconscious communicates with you? Can you distinguish your own thought from the thought of another person in your own brain? Can you distinguish truth from lies within yourself? Who is the one talking to you beyond your consent? How do you move from your own survival-oriented truth to the imperishable law of truth – love? Have time to tell yourself the truth. Adaptation of “the gentle one” is a basic way of finding your truth, which had been prescribed by fyodor dostoevsky long before the generally accepted system of sigmund freud.

Full of vigor and enthusiasm, 27-year-old Ali comes to Ukraine to study. In a few months, a war begins in his native Syria. Being far from his native home, the young man is forced to observe the last days of the world in which he grew up. Having lost everything he loved, Ali dives into memories and thoughts, trying to understand what exactly brought his country to its demise.

Using landscape shots from a series of Soviet collectivization films to expose relations of the Nature and the Hero, director challenges widespread understanding of socialist realism.

The documentary short depicts modern Kolomyia, where the cult of Austria-Hungary coexists with the post-Soviet reality: the developer hires a team of builders who, with thrift, brick by brick, dismantle old and uninhabitable real estate. Meanwhile, the artists invite fifteen-year-old Maksym to draw a walking route in Kolomyia: through the guide’s narration, the map of the city is transformed into a multi-layered historical palimpsest, where Soviet names are mixed with modern urban folklore and traditional Western Ukrainian piety, and “dog paths” are manifested by official intonation.

A story about dreams and what happens when they come true.

Monotony, everyday life, father is a drunkard. This is Masha's everyday life. One day, a young man, Andriy, comes to the village to pick her up and wants to take her to the city with him.

Ira and Manya are friends who share an apartment in Kyiv. Ira is an activist, an organizer of the children's fund and a palliative patient. Manya is her best friend and also a volunteer - the girls work and live together.

The Big Man once was living, A big soul the Man was keeping.

The forefront of the global opposition between the state machine, corporations, and communities has been in Ukraine for the past few years. Symbols of the Maidan revolution – Molotov cocktails and burning tires – had already appeared in 2010 in a small village near Odessa. The community’s voice was not heard, and a peaceful protest against a mighty state energy project inevitably turned into violent clashes. Live Power is a four-year story, the story of the fight by the residents of the village of Usatovo against two transmission lines financed by EBRD to be built over their village, a story with the happy end.

A short film exploring the nature of pain and pleasure and the feelings of guilt and loneliness.

Three colorful characters are playing Russian roulette. The film is heavily decorated, full of details and intense music.

People on both sides of the Russia–Ukraine border have recently been real relatives, and now they are ready to curse each other, accusing "of all mortal sins." So, who "divorced" us? How did it happen that we began to believe the faces from the TV more than the native people? Why did "brothers forever" suddenly become "we will never be brothers"? The heroes of the film are residents of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kiev, Kharkiv, Slavyansk, Kherson and their relatives and friends from Moscow, Voronezh, Smolensk, Sevastopol and Khabarovsk. The end-to-end story of the film is a dialogue between the director and his cousin, who lives in Lviv and who, unlike the author of the film, categorically did not accept the "revolution of dignity".

There is a point where you are just needed. The story of one day. The younger brother's memory of a turning point in his life.

A new year brings the man back into the circle of routine activity, leaving some time to fill with life, as always.

Ever-present schemes involving abuses of authority and kickbacks are still very much alive, and show no desire or intent to leave the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. This short tells the story of an illegal development in the city, local activists’ struggle against armed the unidentified security groups at the construction site, and the local officials who ignore the problem.

The living are looking up to the prints of the past. Universal measure is the measure of life. It happens over and over, every time, to find the crossing between past and present

Stairs effect is when you cannot find the right words, and then the clever answer occurs to you somewhere down the stairs. The answer has hit Oleh too hard. Or maybe it was the Cupid's arrow.

At a birthday party of a friend, she dedicates all her time to her smartphone. The birthday girl gets infuriated and the insulter gets her due - the smartphone sticks dead to her hand. It seems the phone will stay with her for the rest of her life.

A story about playground, ultra-violence and endless childhood.

Everyone has his own passion. Sophia's one is windows. Old, abandoned and lifeless. But for her these windows are alive, because The Past of human lives is still there. However, to which consequences this passion will lead her - she can't even imagine.

Rogues Nastya and Artem found another one easy prey. But it is not very solace Nastya, which is experiencing a difficult period in relations with relatives and his boyfriend. Yes, and the booty, unfortunately, was not so easy.

The line of a real Ukrainian wheelchair citizens' life and their opportunity to join the cultural life of the country. The line of Mykola Podrezan's around-the-world travelling (demonstration of the unique photo and video archive materials from the worlds most famous cultural attractions and their help to implement the rights of the disabled wheelchair people).

Industrial space is conceptually filled; it generates and influences the character and content of the image.

June 2017. Earthlings are suffering from one of the most powerful magnetic storms and strongest Petya cyber-attack. Although Dusya and Natalka do not care about that - their TV has broken.

Young couple travels to a small Ukrainian city Rovno. But instead of an adventure, ahead lie sickness, bad weather and five days of searching for beauty in a world where beauty is in short supply.

At night, the family sleeps and dreams. The husband finds himself in the Jurassic Period, the wife dreams of herself and her daughter receiving draft cards, the son faces an entrance to a monastery in his dream, and the daughter dreams of geopolitical change on the world map.

Preschoolers decide to recreate a famous act of toppling monuments. The confrontation is accompanied by slogans from the anti-corruption and anti-populism rhetoric.

A classic conflict from the Ukrainian literature in the school curriculum, but in a contemporary context. It presents the relevant topic of the effect of a person's emotional state on their health and touches upon the issue of family relations marked by inequality.

Danylo is receiving an education which has been paid for by 'dollars from under the mattress', but he faces a problem on the job market. Stepan prefers a working class profession, which guarantees stability in life under certain circumstances. This is an educational story of two friends whose lives turned out very differently due to their choice of occupation and higher education.

Do you believe in miracles? In vain. There will be no miracle today.

Where geography and common sense doesn't work, there is a place for him. This is a story about a person who has everything. It is not quite the same we used to imagine as the products of contemporary system of values. Living on the edge between alcoholic dreams and awakenings Fenik has found his niche. The only reason to worry about is that scrap metal will be gone soon.

The protagonist is in a computer game store, and complains to the seller how he got everything. That everywhere one negative. The seller makes him a gift, in the form of glasses and says that they will change his life. The hero thinks that this is some kind of nonsense, but when he puts them on, he realizes that reality is changing. How does the hero use this opportunity? It remains to be seen whether he will choose the aberration of happiness.

A man tries to find any justification for meaningless killing of living things, but the only answer he gets is "because it is fun".

Oleg Khrapan is a master of folk art of Ukraine and a modern potter. His work often evokes emotions of delight, happiness and nostalgia, because pottery is one of the oldest crafts in Ukraine. Every spectator will be able to look into the bright everyday life of a pottery workshop and be enchanted to watch how clay turns into real works of art in the skillful hands of a master.

Lisa lives with her mother, an indifferent sister and a silly dog. She sincerely believes that she will be able to fall in love with Vadik, imagining their relationship in the spirit of the 2000s movies. Once, having received an invitation to a party from Vadik, Lisa under the careful guidance of friends decides to achieve her goal and meet the guy of her dreams. However, the reality is not as fabulous as the girl's dreams. Despite Vadik's indifference, Lisa persistently proves to herself and the world that this is the same true love. Painfully overcoming the indifference of family, friends, management, she hopes to hear the coveted "I love you."

A man discovers he's the protagonist in a cliché, short student film and struggles to get out of it.

Experimental work that explores the Soviet imaginary and its relation to the future. The work features a virtual rendering of an architectural landscape that contrasts physical and temporal scales and stamps function as graphic messengers of a political and cultural transition. Constructed between the frameworks of speculative architecture, philately and the politics of time, "Postcard From a Nonexisting City" is a work that reflects on temporal arrangements and geopolitical effects produced by space communication technologies.

This purely observational film, underscored by the noise and sounds of protests, explores, in static frontal shots or from above, the spontaneous architecture of seven Kiev barricades erected in the streets leading to Independence Square. The film does not explore the conflict itself, but is a bizarre homage to the anonymous engineers of revolt.

Shot in a steppe landscape in southern Ukraine, this short film follows the process of transformation of an abandoned Soviet apartment building.

Experimental essay film with poetry: "How big the star is. It will burn".

Among the living beings who like to hide from their owners, today in the first place - a mobile phone. It's easy to find if you have another cell phone. If there is no other - the search can turn into a detective, drama, comedy, absurdity. In order to unravel this detective, not turning it into a drama and smile at the absurd, the hero of the film "Gift" needed one April night and the help of half the village.

A documentary cover of Jorgen Lett's famous film "66 Scenes of America". Similar scenes from Jorgen Lett's film were shot during a year in Uzhhorod, which makes it possible to rethink the city through the prism and vision of a film shot in the 1980s in the United States.

Once upon a time I bought a bicycle.

Going home lonely woman finds the corpse on the lane. The man was strangled by the plastic bag. And this is not the first murder in the city. Who is this maniac and who is his next victim? Major Gunko and Junior Lieutenant Petrushka are going to investigate this series of murders.