Ukrainian

A team of Ukrainian journalists from The Associated Press (AP) trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city, they capture what later become defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more. After nearly a decade covering international conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war for the AP, 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL is Mstyslav Chernov’s first feature length film. Drawing on Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war, 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL is a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.Read More »

Ukraine, one year before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Fun-loving Kira is 17 and is a budding actor, something she has no trouble proving before her bedroom mirror to the strains of “Venus” by Bananarama. In an era known in Ukrainian as “Perebudova” or “remodelling”, colourful nylon stockings are all the rage, her parents’ generation is celebrating with caviar on toast and raising crystal glasses amidst not-quite-conformist paintings, and artistic types are wondering where they can get their hands on cheap dollars. Meanwhile, Kira retreats to the kitchen to investigate a plastic bag of flotsam from the West containing chewing gum, a glittery jumper and a can of Pepsi. Her life is about to take off, but her family and the country she lives in are beginning to fall apart.Read More »

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Returning home from the front line after being held captive for two months, soldier Lilia (29 y.o.) discovers that she is pregnant after being raped by her warden. Will she manage to survive this trauma and save the child in a society that is not ready to accept either of them?Read More »

After several months away, Pamfir returns to his family on the eve of a traditional carnival. Because of how unconditional their love is, Pamfir is forced to reconnect with his unhappy past in order to make up for his only child’s mistake of starting a fire at the prayer place. He will be led down a dangerous path with unrecoverable consequences.

18 wins, 22 nominations.Read More »

A deaf teenager struggles to fit into the boarding school system.

Set in a Ukrainian school for the deaf and mute, The Tribe follows new student Sergey as he gets a crash course in who’s really in charge. The decrepit institution is awash in drugs, prostitution and organized petty crime. This incredible film has one particularly daring aspect: it is acted entirely in sign language without the aid of subtitles or voice-over. The audience follows the story through the physicality of the performances and the emphatic intensity of the signing. Heightened by a hormone-laced narrative, with kids engaging in explicit sex and violence, The Tribe is an unforgettable cinematic experience, from its epic, wordless opening shot to the brutal finale.Read More »

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July 2014. Expectant parents Irka and Tolik live in the Donetsk district of eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. Their nervous anticipation of their first child’s birth is violently disrupted as the vicinal crash of flight MH17 elevates the forbidding tension enveloping their village.Read More »

The Girl and the Boy play in a garden. They are left alone there and they do not have any obligations to behave in a certain way. This gives them the freedom to create their own ways of interaction with the world. During such an interaction, adult social constructs inter-twist into weird children folklore and shift into an abstract sphere. There are secrets and various modes of being in the world of the Girl and the Boy.
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What does the violent heart of revolution feel like? A visceral documentary from Maidan square in the violent Ukrainian winter of 2013-14.Read More »

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The main characters of the film are the inhabitants of the contemporary Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Lviv. Their reality is multi-layered, unvarnished, deprived of unambiguous interpretations of good and evil, humanity and cruelty, charity and indifference. This story is a kaleidoscope, which features all of us: the righteous, the merciless, the funny, the naïve. The honest.Read More »