The festival will take place from October 26 to 30 in central Berlin cinemas. The program consists of 4 feature films and 4 documentaries of 2021-2022. Another part of the festival is 2 short film programs. One of the programs is dedicated to maturity and adulthood and the other one SPIRITS OF THE CITIES to urbanistics. The program gives us a unique look at the cities, some of which no longer exist. They were destroyed after the fool-scale Russian invasion started.
“This year our team felt more responsibility while completing the program, and we think there is no need to explain to you why. The selected films are surrounded on the topics of Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian traditions and history, decolonisation and analysis of the Soviet past and the power of its propaganda”
Statement by the curators of the festival
Another important part of Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin 2022 is the opening ceremony. Ukrainian state film archive Dovzhenko Centre, Ukrainian composer Maryana Klochko and Ukrainian contemporary dancers collaborate with UFFB for the festival opening ceremony. Its outcome will be an audio-visual performance with fragments of silent archival Ukrainian films and modern choreography.
Artists at Risks Residency Programm
The performance would be accompanied by a live set especially written by Maryana Klochko. Under the curation of the UFFB team Ukrainian videographer and editor Ryta Gasanova is contributing to the visual part of performance and Ukrainian actress Solomiia Kyrylova is working on choreography with the dancers. They came to Berlin for Artists at Risk residency funded by Goethe-Institut*
With this collaboration, we aim to support Dovzhenko Centre, which is now protecting itself from the attempts of the Ukrainian State Film Agency to restructure the state film archive which factically means it`s destruction.
“For the last few decades Dovzhenko Centre has been restoring, researching and displaying the rich heritage of Ukrainian cinema to the Ukrainian and international audience – starting with silent films from the 1930s. Thus, the history of filmmaking that was labeled as ‘soviet’ and later appropriated by Russia is being returned to Ukraine by Dovzhenko Centre, says Valentyna Zalevska, curator and co-founder of Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin.
Festival feature films:
BUTTERFLY VISION (Opening Film) / Maksym Nakonechnyi / Croatia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Ukraine / 2022 / 107`/
Having returned home from captivity, Lilya still carries on her fight, this time against haunting memories and PTSD. A former drone pilot, Lilya preserves her detached gaze on the Earth from above; through the film, we feel her alienation from mundane life. The directing, cast, and script that brought Butterfly Vision a celebrated premiere in Cannes in 2022 breathe life into the memorable female character and immersive story.
PAMFIR (Closing film) / Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk / Ukraine, France, Poland, Chile, Luxembourg / 2022 / 100`
The story of a smuggler who values his family above all else mesmerizes with aesthetically perfect sets, costumes, picturesque Carpathian backdrops, and profound acting.
REFLECTION / Valentyn Vasyanovych / Ukraine / 2021 / 128`
As they say, when you gaze into the abyss, it gazes back, and it tells you what you are made of. Visually impeccable long takes and a precise cross-section of an abyss – already a trademark of Valentyn Vasyanovych’s work – reappear in his latest feature, Reflection, which premiered in Venice. Starring celebrated Atlantis actor Andriy Rymaruk alongside masterful theater performer Roman Lutsky, Reflection focuses on friendship and fatherhood and explores themes of commitment, faithfulness, and living up to one’s ideals.
KLONDIKE / Maryna R Gorbach / Ukraine, Turkey / 2022 / 100`
Maryna Er Gorbach filters the panorama of the war in the east of Ukraine through one of its episodes – Flight MH17 from the Netherlands to Malaysia being shot down over Ukraine – and the story of one family. In Klondike, we observe the frontline through the frame of a torn wall of the family’s house. This framing brings us to reflect on the causes of the conflict in Donbass as well as its outcomes.
Documentaries:
ONE DAY IN UKRAINE / Volodymyr Tykhyy / Ukraine, Poland /2022 / 77`
One Day in Ukraine documents the first weeks of the full-scale Russian invasion: people spending nights underground in train stations, volunteers supplying members of Teroborona – civil defense units formed of civilians who stood up to protect their hometowns, a looter being persecuted by local activists. We know about all these and more from our own experience and the stories of friends and the media. One day in Ukraine is a diary, a witness’s testimony, and one of the first artistic approaches to the reality of the full-scale invasion.
DIARY OF A BRIDE OF CHRIST / Marta Smerechynska / Ukraine / 2022 / 90`
Filmmaking student Marta Smerechynska follows her sister’s life-changing decision to go to the monastery. A 22-year-old speaks about the process of coming to terms with the path her sister has chosen, opening up to her camera-diary with her fears, doubts, values, and dearest dreams. As Smerechynska lets us get incredibly close to her family and her inner world, we witness her vulnerability but also her strength – and the strength of her sister. A young girl who becomes a bride of Christ assembles the narrative about Greek Catholic spiritual heritage and its revival in Ukraine.
INFINITY ACCORDING TO FLORIAN / Oleksiy Radinsky / 2022 / 70`
A flying saucepan at Kyiv’s Lybidska train station has been an important architectural mark in the city for decades – and is one of the architectural masterpieces of constructivism. Now it is at risk of being demolished and replaced by a trade center. Eminent architect Florian Yuriev combined music, color, and space in the buildings he contrived; his time as a gulag inmate also deeply influenced his personality and his heritage. Memories of former times entangle with the present-day challenges of construction in the capital, and with the fight against terminal illness: the mundane entangles with the infinite.
Oleksiy Radynskskyi is a filmmaker, writer, and conceptual thinker. ‘Infinity according to Florian’ is a tribute from one striking Kyiv-based artist to the other.
FRAGILE MEMORY / Ihor Ivanko / Ukraine, Slovakia / 2022 / 85`
Ihor Ivanko discovers the private film archive of his grandfather Leonid Burlaka, a famous Soviet cinematographer. Through the time-damaged negatives, he not only gets closer to his grandfather and family history but also gets insights into Ukrainian cinema in the 1960s and ‘70s. Ivanko reveals the parallels between a struggling retired cinematographer with the onset of memory loss and the fragile cultural memory of Ukrainians.
Short films programs:
SPIRITS OF THE CITIES (urbanistics)
LITURGY OF ANTI-TANK OBSTACLES / Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk / Ukraine, USA / 2022 / 12`
HER PLACE: MARHARYTA / Olha Tuharinova / Ukraine / 2020 / 6`
RAIN PROJECT/ Oleg Chorny / Ukraine / 2016 / 23`
REMEMBER THE SMELL OF MARIUPOL / Zoya Laktionova/ Ukraine, Austria / 2022 / 4`
WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE BUILDINGS? / Jonathan Ben-Shaul / Ukraine / 2022 / 27`
ACH SO / Polina Piddubna / Germany, Ukraine / 2022 / 3`
Maturité (coming of age short films)
PHASE / Mykola Zaseev / Ukraine / 2021 / 20`
DAD’S SNEAKERS / Olha Zhurba / Ukraine / 2021 / 19`
LEOPOLIS NIGHT / Nikon Romanchenko / Ukraine / 2021 / 26`
DIAPER CAKE / Anastasiya Babenko / Ukraine / 2021 / 18`
GOOD BOY / Mariia Ponomarova / Ukraine, Netherlands / 2021 / 15`
Special early bird price for the opening ceremony is only 10 euros now! Please follow the link to get your early bird tickets here. The Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin 2022 is financed by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Goethe–Institut Germany.
Festival cinemas:
ACUD KINO (Veteranenstraße 21)
IL KINO (Nansenstraße 22)
SPUTNIK KINO (Hasenheide 54/5th)
BROTFABRIK ( Caligaripl. 1)
COLOSSEUM KINO (Schönhauser Allee 123)
Тут лінк на гугл драйв з візуалкою
The Goethe Institute
*The Goethe-Institut’s matching platform for cultural professionals in cooperation with the international NGO Artists at Risk is part of a comprehensive package of measures for which the Federal Foreign Office is providing funds from the 2022 supplementary budget to mitigate the consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
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One response to “Ukrainian Filmfestival this weekend!”
[…] The Ukrainian people are in need of help. Those who are still in Ukraine and those who have fled the country. This is why we have joined forces with our friends and partners to raise funds. In addition, donations will be collected at the box office. […]