Cultural Code of Ukraine: East (2023)

YEAR

A documentary film-project by Dmytro Komarov. He was the first journalist to witness and film the horrors of the just-liberated towns of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel. He saw the first emotions of people immediately after the de-occupation of Kyiv region, Kharkiv region, and Kherson region. The documentary is the author's view of the war from angles that you won't see in the news. Unique, rare, exclusive comments from those whose hands and minds are shaping our future victory. The main heroes of documentary are both ordinary Ukrainians who heroically show their strength and power every day for a year and high-ranking officials such as Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov, Major General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk. Initially, "Year" was a series of journalistic reports, later they were edited into a two-part film.

Back to Basics.Wedding

Full-length documentary about wedding customs and rites from different parts of Ukraine. This film will immerse the viewer in the world of rich, striking and diverse wedding culture of 8 regions of the country: Kyiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, Kharkiv, Rivne and Chernivtsi.

Crimea. The Stolen Peninsula

Documentary film about war crime — annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.

The Football Nation

The documentary tells about the birth, history of formation and development of the National Football Team of Ukraine in the period from 1992 to 2022.

Ukraine's War: The Other Side

This unique feature-length documentary follows filmmaker Sean Langan's journey into the Russian side of the war in Eastern Ukraine, the only independent UK journalist to report from what is almost exclusively a hidden and otherwise inaccessible side of this conflict. In an intimate look at a side of Russia’s war rarely seen in Western media, Sean heads into the Russian-occupied Donbas region to find out through the eyes of soldiers on the Eastern front and civilians coping with war in the streets how the conflict is affecting them.

Slava Ukraini

One year after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us to the heart of the combat through this war diary made during the second half of 2022. From Kharkiv and Bakhmut to Kherson, in the aftermath of the city’s liberation, this documentary bears witness to the ravages of war through the testimonies of soldiers, chronicles of the front and portraits of civilians, and shares with us the struggle of the Ukrainian people.

Life to the Limit

From the Revolution of Dignity to full-scale war: successful Ukrainian film producers took up arms to defend the country and cameras to record the gruesome reality. From the fragments of memories and their own film archive, veterans Pavlo and Yurko assemble a mosaic of the causes and consequences of today's Russian-Ukrainian war - from the end of 2013 to today. The authors went to the front as volunteers, visited the hotspots of Donbas, created the home-made drone "Furia", which is now named after one of the best air reconnaissance units. And all this time they continued to create in order to show the world the truth about the terrible war that became possible in the 21st century.

The Hardest Hour

The unique testimony of the tragic events and crimes of russia through the eyes of Ukrainians, which the entire world must see and feel. Film was created from 200 hours of chronicles: survival, resistance, and life during the war. Every minute was filmed by Ukrainians with their mobile phones. Each story in the documentary is a film captured and filmed by Ukrainians on their devices.

Crimea. As It Was

The film is a story about the officers, soldiers and seamen who did not betray their oath of loyalty to the people of Ukraine and their first hand accounts about Russia's invasion and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. They continue to fulfill their military obligations on land, on sea and in the air today.

Homefront

A family with five children flees the war raging in their home village on the Russian border. They end up in Mshanets, a farming village on the other side of the country, remote and unknown. Here the family starts building a new home. At the same time, two documentary makers come to the village, looking for a story. In the Lymar family they find the ideal characters for their film. But one day, when the renovation of their house is almost finished, the family disappears. The filmmakers go in search of their characters and along the way they try to find an answer to the question: what does a person need to feel at home?

Do No Harm

Oksana, a Ukrainian doctor, is living in Finland when Russia attacks Ukraine. She hops on a bus with Finnish volunteers and heads to the border of Ukraine and Poland. The goal of these rescue operations is to bring as many Ukrainians fleeing the war to Finland as possible.

Oleksa Dovbush

The story of the "Hutsul Robin Hood" Oleksa Dovbush, an 18th century Carpathian Mountains outlaw who's a popular figure of Ukrainian legend.

Don't Leave Me Behind: Stories of Young Ukrainian Survival

The fears and resiliencies within a group of teenage refugees from Ukraine are uncovered in this film that brings the camera steps away from the front lines to the Ukraine-Poland border.

Till the Last Ukranian

This is a once in a generation event that needs to be examined without the usual spin that is delivered by the controlled media. While the video will be interpreted one way or the other, it is one that supports the voice of reason and of peace rather than jingoistic war drums and the cacophony of white noise.

V. Silvestrov

There is a rumor in the Kyiv musical community: once upon a time, in private conversation, Queen Elizabeth II mentioned Valentyn Silvestrov as one of her favorite composers of the modern age. The Royal Press Office hasn’t confirmed it, so no one knows for sure. But the stature of Silvestrov justifies this rumor. Highly respected by the world’s best music professionals, he remains a mystery for a wide audience. The documentary is far from a traditional biopic about a prominent person. It is an observation, a confession and, most of all, a story of great talent set against the backdrop of uncertain times.

Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods

A revealing and moving portrait of lives compromised by war, filmed exclusively by Ukrainian soldiers with extraordinary access to a tightly-controlled frontline.

Selenskyj - Ein Präsident im Krieg

Plot unavailable

Lightning Before Thunder

A short documentary about how "Fulton" the Ukrainian Football Club came together.

Lida

"LIDA" takes place on the day of Lida's 70th birthday. This already special day is made more unusual by the recent arrival of her grandson, Lev, who had immigrated to the United States with his family in 2001. Returning to Ukraine for the first time as an adult, Lev documents his grandmother as she tends to the small homestead and prepares for the birthday celebration in the rural village in Ukraine. By capturing moments of arduous labor, as well as through personal conversation, Lev inquires into his grandmothers relationship to her home, land - and their family.

Zelenskyy: The Man Who Took on Putin

The rise of the comedian, actor and entertainer who became the improbable wartime leader. Exploring the man behind the series of game changing social media and TV appearances which have encapsulated the defiant response of a nation.

Servant of the people, Zelensky

Are the absolute power and weakness of the state tempting enough to initiate authoritarian rule? This documentary shows Zelensky's success and also presents the consequences, including international ones, of giving power to a man who had the most spectacular political career in Europe.

Superpower

Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman’s documentary, shot just before and after Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022, and featuring several interviews with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Euromaidan. Rough Cut

Three months of revolution. From indignant protest to national unity. From pots on their heads to batons and body armor. From the euphoria of victory to the mourning of the fallen Heavenly Hundred. Revolution as an explosion of revived dignity, as the euphoria of freedom, as the pain of awareness at the cost, as the birth of the modern history of Ukraine. This year we have decided not to have an opening film, because all our attention is focused on the changes taking place in our country today. We have asked the directors who filmed the Ukrainian protests to share their best shots with us. The episodes of these upcoming films about the Euromaidan were formed in a kaleidoscope of revolution, which needs no comment. We offer you a chronicle of the Ukrainian protest. Experience the three months of fighting with us, feel and see the revolution through our eyes.

Babi Yar. Context

Nazi troops massacre 30,000 Jews over a three-day period in September 1941. Babyn Yar ravine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Belarus: An Ordinary Dictatorship

It’s the last dictatorship of Europe, caught in a Soviet time-warp, where the secret police is still called the KGB and the president rules by fear. Disappearances, political assassinations, waves of repression and mass arrests are all regular occurances. But while half of Belarus moves closer to Russia, the other half is trying to resist…

Maidan

A chronicle of the civil uprising against the regime of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that took place in Kyiv in the winter of 2013/14. The film follows the progress of the revolution: from peaceful rallies, half a million strong in the Maidan square, to the bloody street battles between protesters and riot police.

Ivan and Marta

Ivan Dziuba - literary critic, public figure, academician of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine - belongs to the "sixties". He fully takes care of all the miscalculations and unfulfilled promises of his generation. Reflects on why the illusions were lost and why so few dreams came true ... Let's see and listen to him with his wife Martha, a Lviv woman who was his guardian angel. Together - all life. Exactly as they are, the right is the definition - the conscience of the nation.

The Hydra

"The Hydra" is a fast-paced suspense thriller and feature documentary about the sudden rise of ecstasy in Europe to epidemic levels after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Who are we? Psychoanalysis of Ukrainians

Plot unavailable

This Rain Will Never Stop

This Rain Will Never Stop takes the audience on a powerful, visually arresting journey through humanity’s endless cycle of war and peace. The film follows 20-year-old Andriy Suleyman as he tries to secure a sustainable future while navigating the human toll of armed conflict. From the Syrian civil war to strife in Ukraine, Andriy’s existence is framed by the seemingly eternal flow of life and death.

Askania Reserve

Askania-Nova is the largest steppe wildlife sanctuary in Europe. It is located in south part of Ukraine, not far from Crimea peninsula. In order to underline this unique beauty we created a documentary musical film about life of animals and people in wildlife sanctuary of Askania-Nova. The movie reveals stories of a three protagonists, whose destinies were entangled because of wildlife sanctuary.

Taras Bulba

Ukraine, 16th century. While the Poles dominate the Cossack steppes, Andrei, son of Taras Bulba, a Cossack leader, must choose between his love for his family and his folk and his passion for a Polish woman.

The Guide

American boy Peter and blind minstrel Ivan are thrown together by fate amidst the turbulent mid-30s Soviet Ukraine.

Maksym Osa: The Gold of Werewolf

Ukraine - 1636. Someone has attacked a battalion of cossacks that were transporting the gold of the Polish king. A cossack - Maksym Osa - tries to find the missing gold, but soon becomes one of the main suspects.

Dovbush

In the early eighteenth century, foreign rule means dark times for the Hutsuls of the Carpathians. The two Dovbush brothers become opryshkos - mountain outlaws. But the two brothers become enemies - one cares only about money, the other - Oleksa - fights for his people. The Carpathians are convulsed with a wave of uprisings. The aristocracy uses its military might to try to kill Dovbush and destroy his legend. But Dovbush outwits them. The desperate lords devise a devious plan and attack the invincible outlaw's Achilles heel - his love for his childhood sweetheart, Marichka. Who will be the assassin to attack the Opryshko whose immense strength and bravery inspired folk tales? Will the lords' treacherous plan destroy the hero before he can lead his people to freedom?

Charakter: Athlete

During the aggression on Ukraine, Russian soldiers killed more than 400 Ukrainian athletes. Russians destroyed hundreds of stadiums, sports centers, gyms, and pools. Thousands of young athletes and children fled war to foreign countries.

Stronger than Arms

"Stronger than Arms", is the history that heats our hearts up with the memory of events and people, who from the time of Euromaidan to the war in the East were building a new Ukraine.

Hell Jumper

Courage, love and loss. Young people risk their lives with self-funded missions to rescue families in Ukraine’s frontline towns. Told through their own words and unique first-person footage.

Mr. Jones

In 1933, Welsh journalist Gareth Jones travels to Ukraine, where he experiences the horrors of a famine. Everywhere he goes he meets henchmen of the Soviet secret service who are determined to prevent news about the catastrophe from getting out. Stalin’s forced collectivisation of agriculture has resulted in misery and ruin—the policy is tantamount to mass murder.

Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine

BREAKING POINT: The War for Democracy in Ukraine looks at people transformed by a democratic revolution, who give up their normal lives to fight a Russian invasion, in a war which has killed 10,000 and displaced 1.9 million Ukrainians.

MonoKate

Documentary that follows Go_A’s lead singer Kateryna Pavlenko in the build up to Eurovision 2021.

Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight For Freedom

Personal stories from civilians, children, soldiers, doctors, the country’s elderly, journalists, religious leaders, and international volunteers - a handful of the millions of people whose lives have been turned upside-down by nine years (and counting) of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Camp Courage

Made refugees by the war in Ukraine, Olga and her granddaughter Milana travel to a summer camp in the Austrian Alps to test the limits of their own bravery, and to strengthen their growing bond.

The Hamlet Syndrome

Five young Ukrainians discuss life following the Maidan Revolution of 2014. Not all fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it, regardless, shattered their life plans. Representing 'Generation Maidan', they face the question of how to cope with experiences of violence, how to go on. A local theatre director produces Hamlet, wherein they can use Shakespeare’s tragic character as a mirror and face their traumas onstage. For them, 'to be or not to be' is not simply text but an existential dilemma with no clear answer.