Films on Ukraine
Feature, short and documentary films concerning Ukraine (plot, mentioning, characters etc.)
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- DirectorEnrico CullenStarsIvan Mykhailovych HrysIvan Karlovych LukachFedir TokachA portrait of rural melancholia, SALT IN THE AIR exhumes the spirit of salt from a 3,500-year-old salt mine in a foggy and hardscrabble Carpathian Mountain village. With rhythmic pacing and intimacy, SALT IN THE AIR connects actual salt with the landscapes and the lives that salt touches. Innovative asthma clinics where patients inhale salt crystals. The enduring legacy of salt pork. And the salt-miners' struggle to sustain a solemn covenant with what was once the most valuable material on Earth.
- DirectorRoxy ToporowychStarsRoxy ToporowychFeaturing the legendary ballerina and choreographer Roma Pryma Bohachevsky and the Syzokryli Dance Ensemble of New York, the Virsky National Dance Company of Ukraine, the Kashtan School of Ukrainian Dance in Cleveland and The Voloshky Dance Ensemble of Philadelphia, "Folk!", dubbed the greatest film about Ukrainian folk dancing ever, explores the unique underground and acrobatic world of Ukrainian folk dancing through the eyes of narrator/filmmaker Roxy Toporowych. This documentary is the first film to be a joyful embracement of Ukrainian culture and dance in North America today as well as a musical feature that is also extremely relevant to anyone trying to balance ties to one's heritage and culture.
- DirectorTetyana ChernyavskaRainer LudwigsStarsLjudmilla KorzhAn animated Biography of a so-called Liquidator who grew up 3km away from the Chernobyl reactor. The film comprehends the development of this world disaster through the destiny of the protagonist and his family. The small episodes reconstruct the emotional dimension of the tragedy: The children which run to the burning reactor, getting a look on the spectacular drama, the unsuspecting village people in the surrounded area, the animals which remain behind after the evacuation, and the helpless tries of mankind to eliminate the follows of the nuclear disaster, accompanied with the faceless, communist Soviet system. After all there is a happy end: The triumph of life over the catastrophe.
- DirectorMarianna KaatStarsJura SikanovJulia SikanovaUljana SikanovaThe eastern Ukrainian town of Snezhnoje, which prospered during the Soviet era when miners there were spoiled with all kinds of privileges, now lives in poverty.
- DirectorJakob PreussDonetsk is the coal-mining area of Ukraine. Here most people work for low wages in the run down mines, while others make a lot of money. No matter which side of the social divide you are on, coming from Donetsk you will almost certainly be an opponent of the Orange Revolution and a fan of the local football team, Shakhtar Donetsk. Billionaire Akhmetov invests heavily in the club, which is becoming a major European force during the season followed by the film. Yet this sporting success funded by an Oligarch fortune only seems to highlight the wider social and political stagnation of the region. Off the pitch, the outlook appears bleak...
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsNaomi WattsViggo MortensenArmin Mueller-StahlA teenager who dies during childbirth leaves clues in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.
- DirectorLiev SchreiberStarsElijah WoodEugene HutzBoris LyoskinA young Jewish American man, with the help of an eccentric local, endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village that was ultimately razed by the Nazis.
- DirectorGaël MocaërEvery day hundreds of men risk life and limb going down into the Buzhanska mine in the Ukraine to mine coal with rusty old tools from the Soviet era.
- DirectorTomás HodanStarsDmitry Vasilievich VorohtaA movie about rich life in the poor country.
- DirectorHans-Christian SchmidStarsAndrzej GórakAnna YanovskayaSergey FrolovThis movie reflects on the situation around the border between Poland and Germany. The fate of many single characters creates a picture of life in this region: Some Ukrainians want to cross the border illegal to get into Germany, a company wants to build a new factory, a Polish taxi driver desperately needs money to buy his daughter a First Communion dress, and so on.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsKseniya RappoportMichele PlacidoClaudia GeriniHaunted by a horrible past, a young Ukrainian woman calculatedly insinuates herself into the life of a rich Italian family.
- DirectorDanny LernerStarsOlga KurylenkoNinet TayebHenry DavidA woman forced to work for the Russian Mafia as an assassin agrees to help her next-door neighbor kill her abusive husband.
- DirectorSophie BarthesAndrij ParekhStarsStephanie SzostakSteve BenistyArsen Tymoshenko"Snowblink", inspired by a Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story, portrays the honeymoon of a young French couple who are crossing the Ukraine. The couple's journey through the snow-covered steppes leads them to a face-to-face encounter with the machinery of bureaucracy.
- DirectorAndrei ZagdanskyStarsLeonid KuchmaVictor YanukovichViktor YushchenkoThey poisoned the opposition candidate. But he survived. They exerted full control over the media. But one rebelled. They stole the election. And streets erupted. This is the story of the Orange Revolution in Kyiv, Ukraine.
- DirectorAndré SchreudersStarsAlec KopytA musician from Amsterdam returns to Moldavanka - the former Jewish neighborhood of Odessa - his place of birth and the cradle of old-time Russian Mafia songs.
- DirectorJan-Hinrik DrevsRené HarderStarsVladimir Andreyevich PilipenkoAnya Michailovna PilipenkoSergei Semyonovich HoncharovVladimir Pilipenko built a submarine. Life size. And in the village lake, his submarine worked. But Vladimir has set his sights on something bigger than the local pond. Can his sub really dive in the Black Sea?
- DirectorNaomi UmanHoping to experience what it is like to be an immigrant, the filmmaker sets off on a reverse journey that her great grandparents made in 1906. In 2006 Naomi Uman came to Ukraine, knowing no one, not speaking the language, and began a life in a small village where people still live as if it were 100 years ago.
- DirectorMiroslaw DembinskiStarsRuslana LyzhickoYulia TymoshenkoViktor YushchenkoWhen in November 2004 the Orange Revolution broke out in Ukraine, Poland's Dwarves, sporting this silly symbol as a rally for their underground protest group, decided to come to the Ukrainian revolutionaries' aid.
- DirectorDamian KolodiyFilmmaker Damian Kolodiy arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine expecting to stay for two weeks. Instead, a revolution exploded around him that inspired the world!
- DirectorChristoph BoekelOn April 26, 1986, an inconceivable event happened and a nightmare scenario became horrific reality: the day reactor block 4 of the Chernobyl atomic power station exploded. In their attempts to contain the disaster, Russian firefighters were exposed to multiple deadly doses of radioactivity. Three weeks later almost all of them were dead. Very little information about the true extent of the radioactive contamination managed to find its way out to the public. Twenty years later, this vivid, moving documentary film, told from the personal perspective of the filmmaker, is a requiem for the often forgotten victims of the disaster and a caveat against putting blind trust in technological advancement.
- DirectorKarsten HeinStarsPatrick von BlumeOne percent of the Ukrainian population is HIV-infected, that is half a million people. In this documentary, a follow-up to "AIDS in Odessa" (2004), the filmmakers embark on a journey through the East of Ukraine to meet patients and carers.
- DirectorJaroslav VojtekStarsPeter LizákTibor TóthStefan TóthA documentary about a village that was during one night in 1947 separated by force into a Soviet and a Czechoslovak part in a way, that the border runs through the middle of the village, separating properties and families.
- DirectorZsuzsa BöszörményiKai SalminenStarsÁdám RajhonaA tragicomic story about a village on the border between east and west. The village decides to challenge the European Union, only to find that constant change is a guarantee for no change at all.
- DirectorNikolaus GeyrhalterAfter 1986, a restricted zone was erected at a radius of 30km around Chernobyl. More than 100.000 people have been evacuated from there, but some have remained or returned. "Pripyat" follows four protagonists who live or work in this zone.
- DirectorJirí StejskalThis picturesque Ukrainian farm is not surrounded by fields, but by huge housing developments. Ominous cranes overlook Natasha's land at the edge of Kiev, which year after year is being pushed deeper into a pit by new panel buildings. The brave owner protects not only acres of land, but also traditional family values, faith and ownership. From a bird's-eye view of the farm, a sharp contrast emerges between the village and the city. This peculiar family business model is set forth in a four-year chronicle from the point of view of foreign visitors who don't interfere with the way of life that the family has lived for generations.
- DirectorDominik SedlarJakov SedlarStarsArmand AssanteYulia TymoshenkoA documentary on the life of Ukraine's Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko.
- DirectorJakov SedlarStarsArmand AssanteYulia TymoshenkoA portrait of iconic Ukrainian political leader Yulia Tymoshenko, known worldwide for her famous peasant-style braid, elegant couture and confident charisma, and the challenges she faces as a female politician in a patriarchal society.
- DirectorJohn Beck HofmannMaidan Massacre is an investigative documentary into the shootings which occurred on February 20th, 2014, when nearly 50 people were gunned down on the streets of Kyiv's Independence square.
- DirectorAndrey KonchalovskiyEvgeniy GrigorevEkaterina VeshevaIn the film Battle for Ukraine Andrei Konchalovsky, the famous Russian director, analyzes how Ukraine, a former part of the Soviet Empire and present big European country, struggles to escape from the close embrace of the former big brother, Russia, and not to become one of the American satellites. This extensive study lasted for almost three years. Many Ukrainian, Russian and American historians, politicians and journalists took part in this study, as well as the ex-President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski, the ex-President of Slovakia Rudolf Schuster, the ex-President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, the ex-Prime Minister of Russia Viktor Chernomyrdin, and the businessman Boris Berezovsky.
- DirectorAndrew TkachStarsAlina BeskrovnaOlena DanylovychIvan DoanThey took on a powerful autocrat and won Ukraine's Maidan Revolution by putting their lives on the line in Kiev's main square. But that was only the first battle of the young idealists of Generation Maidan. Now they are battling corrupt oligarchs and bureaucrats in the capital and pro Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. From the first days of the protest a team of Ukrainian filmmakers called Babylon'13 volunteered to capture history in the making on their DSLRs. While the smoke and emotions were still smoldering, Director Andrew Tkach interviewed medics, musicians, self-defense volunteers, civic activists and torture victims who appeared in Babylon's rushes. The front-line footage and interviews with young members of Generation Maidan are woven together to tell an unforgettable story.
- DirectorJulia IvanovaOn the dating tour to Odessa, Ukraine, Ten North American and European men have 10 days to find a partner for the rest of their lives. How: Social gatherings introduce the men to hundreds of skimpy dressed young and beautiful Ukrainian girls, not to mention a bikini contest. Now, the men have to choose the women to go on dates with, overcome the language barrier, cultural differences, age gap and filter out the scammers. Four couples are formed but can they go the distance? Come on this personal journey and discover that not all men are losers, not all women are scammers and the romantic Odessa is dangerously seductive. After the intoxication of the tour is over only one couple will stay together, but it is not the one you would have guessed.
- DirectorMichelle EmsonStarsConrad BreyerLydia DietrichTaras KarasiichuckThe film tells the story of KyivPride, the first attempt of Ukrainian LGBT community to rise up and make their voice be heard by the government.
- DirectorMasha ShpolbergStarsAlexei KotsievskiWhat happens when a nation split along ethnic, linguistic, and religious lines finds itself faced with a political disappointment of staggering proportions? This is the question posed by Masha Shpolberg's film Orange Hangover which examines the after effects of the 2005 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Shot in the culturally diverse city of Odessa on the eve of the 2010 elections, the film follows the director's personal quest to understand the issues at stake and the potential paths to recovery.
- DirectorDaniel McIntyreThis essayistic journal explores radiation in relation to illness, impairment and death - of both man and film. This collage of abstract scenes and images related to travel and memory, shot at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and in nearby places on a trip to Ukraine, forms the central part of the series Lion, which explores the subject of radiation.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsVasylyna IvasyshynVyacheslav BihunAn 85-year-old Ukrainian highlander's first time told story about her love and dates with death during undercover operations in the fight for her nation's independence.
- DirectorJean CounetThrough a Skype call the daily life, dreams and fears of a family in Eastern-Ukraine is revealed while the bombs are falling in the background.
- DirectorFrédéric CousseauBlandine HukSomewhere in Europe there is a forbidden zone. Lying in the heart of this zone is Pripyat, at one time a model city inhabited by some 50 000 people. An invisible enemy forced the residents to evacuate the area in order to escape. Constructed in the early 1970s, Pripyat is now a ghost town. The land it was constructed upon has reverted back to its natural state, but traces of its former occupants are still visible some twenty years after.
- DirectorDavid BickerstaffStarsDavid BickerstaffPhil GrabskyMario PetruccieOn April 26th, 1986, reactor four at Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, sending an enormous radioactive cloud over Northern Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus. The danger is kept a secret from the rest of the world and the nearby population who go about their business as usual. May Day celebrations begin, children play and the residents of Pripyat marvel at the spectacular fire raging at the reactor. After three days, an area the size of England becomes contaminated with radioactive dust, creating a 'zone' of poisoned land. Based on Mario Petrucci's award-winning book-length poem (split over two books), 'Heavy Water: a film for Chernobyl', and the shorter version 'Half Life: a Journey to Chernobyl", tells the story of the people who dealt with the disaster at ground-level: the fire-fighters, soldiers, 'liquidators', and their families.
- DirectorBobby LeighStarsJim HendersonBobby LeighJonny LewisIn 1932-33, Ukraine, the breadbasket of Europe, had bountiful crops of grain, yet its people were dying of starvation. In order to crush the will of the independent-minded Ukrainian peasants and secure collectivization of all Ukrainian lands, Joseph Stalin ordered an army of ruthless, Communist Party activists to confiscate all harvested grain and seize all the foodstuffs in the villages. As a result of this genocidal decree, by the end of 1933 nearly 25 percent of the Ukrainian population - up to 10 million people, including 3 million children - had perished! In the face of terror, Ukrainians had little possibility of escaping their horrific fate to create another life elsewhere. Travel was banned for Ukrainians keeping them confined in a prison of starvation within their own villages.
- DirectorChad GraciaStarsAndrei AlexandrovichFedor AlexandrovichIgor AlexandrovichA gripping, award-winning documentary about an irradiated Ukrainian artist's search for the truth about Chernobyl and his prescient and powerful warnings about Putin's plans for a coming Russian invasion.
- DirectorSteve HooverStarsGennadiy MokhnenkoGennadiy calls himself "Pastor Crocodile." He's known throughout Ukraine for his years working to rehabilitate drug-addicted kids. But he's also a vigilante who uses any force necessary to carry out his moral vision. Gennadiy believes he has made Mariupol a better place, but now, the violence in Ukraine threatens everything.
- DirectorFilip RemundaStarsFilip RemundaA personal road-movie where a Czech filmmaker goes to Ukraine, a country where he has familial ties, friendly bonds and which has been the place for a long working relationship. Individual meetings are a way and an opportunity for him to think about how local recent events are affecting him personally, but also helping him create successful social interactions. This brings him closer to the people he's meeting. In the end, is Ukraine far or close from him?
- DirectorGötz SpielmannStarsJohannes KrischIrina PotapenkoAndreas LustEx-con Alex plans to flee to the South with his girl after a robbery. But something terrible happens and revenge seems inevitable.
- DirectorAndrej SchwartzStarsElena AntipenkoIrina BraslavskayaLarisa ChudyakovaThe people on the pier of Sevastopol Bay are a symbol of the inextricable dilemma in which the city finds itself: too impoverished for splendor and glory, and much too alive for the scrap-heap. People such as handsome 14-year-old Push, who finds mopeds much cooler than girls, or shy 13-year-old Nastja, still mourning her lost first love, spend their summer together on the pier. Even 80-year-old Galina still has a few tears to spare for the bass voice of her erstwhile lover, but not before she completes her morning swim at Apolonovka's run-down beach. And then again there's wiry, long-distance swimmer Sergej who, despite his 85 years, would certainly never consider neglecting "the third point" of health - sex. Finally we meet Vova and Andrej on the pier: one a tattooed former prisoner, the other a discharged police officer - now working together illegally as divers next to the ships of the Black See Fleet. A summer on Sevastopol's pier, a place made fascinating by the encounter between parallel worlds.
- DirectorPol CruchtenStarsDinara DrukarovaCamille Saltet de Sablet d'EstièresMarc CittiTestimonies of Chernobyl based on the book of Svetlana Alexievitch
- DirectorMichael KochStarsMargarita BreitkreizGeorg FriedrichSahin EryilmazMarija, a young Ukrainian woman, earns a living as a cleaning woman in a hotel in Dortmund, but dreams of having her own hairstyling salon, and puts away some money each month. But when she is fired without notice, her dream is suddenly postponed to an uncertain future. Jobless and under financial pressure, she is forced to look for alternatives but, in order to achieve her goal, she is ready to discard her body, her social relationships and her own feelings.
- DirectorAnita MüllerOn January 7th 2012, the orthodoxe Christmas holiday, an Odessian student in order to quietly meditate headed to a wide-strechted maze of former mining tunnels - the so-called catacombs. He knew the place well and planned to stay in there for one night. He has disappeared without trace since.
- DirectorLevin Peter«The earth has a memory», it is once said in this film. It embraces the dead, and with them their memories. Digging for these memories can reveal another life. Not as a document, but as fertile ground for feelings and thoughts. Director Levin Peter spends a lot of time in intense conversations with his grandfather who used to be stationed in the Ukraine as a soldier of the Wehrmacht. Levin travels there, looking to trace and excavate what he has heard. What he has heard are the kind of tales that can haunt you in old age. Returning to the same places today, old pictures become exposed spectres. What follows is an attempt to uncover, to imagine and to endure biographical anomalies. At the end of this process, both will have an altered view of the fissures and flaws of a human life. A film about the search for those spectres that we call memories. "Beyond the Snowstorm" shows how those memories of our grandparents, seldom or never talked about, can still influence the lives of others today, especially their grandchildren. A film about the difficult balance between the unconditional search for truth and the fragile bonds between us as human beings.