50 Ukrainian docs you must watch to understand Ukraine
Choose 50 films made by Ukrainian filmmakers to better understand Europe's largest country torn by the war but invincible, and appreciate the importance of standing with Ukraine.
Unfortunately, many prominent Ukrainian documentaries are not listed on IMDb, particularly those made in Soviet times (some of them were forbidden and many ignored and even by now they have not been entered here). For example, "Kermanychi" (dir. Ihor Grabovskyi, 1965), "Osvidchennia v kokhanni" (dir. Rollan Serhiyenko, 1966), "Sonata pro khudozhnyka" (dir. Viktor Shkurin, 1966) or a film trilogy by Arkadiy Mikulsky about Oleh Olzhych "Ya kamin iz Bozhoyi praschi...". The body of documentaries about Ukrainian history (e.g. a must see 108 episodes series "Unknown Ukraine. Essays of our History") also missing here.
Foreign films unless co/produced by Ukrainians are not included.
Unfortunately, many prominent Ukrainian documentaries are not listed on IMDb, particularly those made in Soviet times (some of them were forbidden and many ignored and even by now they have not been entered here). For example, "Kermanychi" (dir. Ihor Grabovskyi, 1965), "Osvidchennia v kokhanni" (dir. Rollan Serhiyenko, 1966), "Sonata pro khudozhnyka" (dir. Viktor Shkurin, 1966) or a film trilogy by Arkadiy Mikulsky about Oleh Olzhych "Ya kamin iz Bozhoyi praschi...". The body of documentaries about Ukrainian history (e.g. a must see 108 episodes series "Unknown Ukraine. Essays of our History") also missing here.
Foreign films unless co/produced by Ukrainians are not included.
List activity
17K views
• 2 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
93 titles
- StarsVolodymyr ZelenskyyValerii Fedorovych ZaluzhnyiVitali Klitschko'Ukraine on Fire 2' is one-minute docu-series about the Russia's war on Ukraine.
- DirectorYuri IlyenkoStarsLyudmila EfimenkoLes SerdyukIvan IvanovThe film is a poetic adaptation of a series of stories (oral and written) about Princess Olga of Kievan Rus at the start of the 11th century.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorDziga VertovHow the miners of the Don coal basin (one of the industrial regions of Ukraine) were striving to fulfill in four years their part of the Five Year Plan.
- DirectorYakov AvdeyenkoYuliya SolntsevaAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsLeonid KhmaraOleksiy FyodorovHermann GöringDepicts the Battle of Kharkov. The film incorporates German footage of the invasion of Ukraine, which was later captured by the Soviets.
- DirectorAndrey Vinnitskiy
- DirectorFeliks SobolevStarsB. DrozhinVladimir RaykovIgor ShelushkovHas the capacity of the human brain already been exhausted due to information overload? Sobolev posed this question at the end of the 1960s after a hidden camera recorded the results of a university entrance exam. The director, renowned for his belief in the endless possibilities of humanity, created a participatory documentary in which he filmed experiments with people with phenomenal abilities under the guidance of professors from the Academy of Sciences. Scientific analysis of the nature of hypnosis, telepathy, and dermo-optical perception reveals potential avenues to expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.
- DirectorFeliks SobolevA journalistic story inspired by Volodymyr Vernadsky about the genesis of life in the universe - from the physical elements of the primordial broth to the civilization of intelligent man.
- DirectorRollan SergienkoDocumentary about the famous Ukrainian philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda, which was banned by Soviet censorship.
- DirectorVladimir ShevchenkoThe first film made following the nuclear meltdown accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, on the 26 April 1986, focuses on the immediate aftermath of the disaster and the cleanup effort.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsLesya GongadzeGeorgiy GongadzeLubomyr HusarMost intimate, heartbreaking and inspiring confessions by and about Lesya Gongadze's life and her son's disappearance that prompted a revolution.
- DirectorEvgeny AfineevskyStarsHis Beatitude SviatoslavSaid IsmagilovBishop AgapitA documentary on the unrest in Ukraine during 2013 and 2014, as student demonstrations supporting European integration grew into a violent revolution calling for the resignation of President Viktor F. Yanukovich.
- DirectorKostiantyn KliatskinStarsYuriy ChmelykVolodymyr DubovyiMykola LytvynenkoA story of the officers, soldiers and seamen who have not betrayed their oath of loyalty to the people of Ukraine during the takeover of Crimea. This is a film about a military honor, in the midst of undeclared war.
- DirectorLeonid KanterIvan YasniyStarsBohemaHatyloThis is a story of a new Ukrainian army and new Ukrainian society being born. After Maidan revolution Ukrainian volunteer warriors defend Donetsk Airport from pro-Russian separatists and Russian militaries.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsIrynaOleksandr KolodyazhnyyJuliaA Ukraine's epic story about two families torn by war.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsBohdan YarychevskyMaria TomakYuriy YatsenkoTraveling to a neighbouring country, a remarkable young man becomes a political prisoner: his body and soul are put to test, manifesting the spirit of his nation.
- DirectorAlina GorlovaStarsOksana YakubovaWhat is left backstage of the heroic videos of our warriors in Ukraine? What do they have to face, one on one, in peaceful life, and where does the war stop?
- DirectorAlina GorlovaSvitlana LishchynskaIryna TsilykStarsOlena BilozerskaYulia MatvienkoYulia PaievskaDespite the stereotypes, the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine involves Ukrainian women too. The "Invisible Battalion" will show the world the role of women in the war.
- DirectorMark Jonathan HarrisOles SaninBREAKING 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.
- DirectorSergei MaslobojshchikovThe collective portrait of the rank-and-file creators of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity of 2013-2014 and their individual opponents consists of many interviews with supporters and opponents of the Maidan, with the help of which modern history is impartially recorded. Sincere stories of completely different people on both sides of the barricades, different opinions, goals and hopes.
- DirectorLeonid KanterIvan YasniyStarsOrest SlipakVasyl SlipakThe film is the remarkable and tragic story of Wassyl Slipak; Ukrainian opera singer whose unique voice and talent brought him world recognition and death on the war.
- DirectorIryna TsilykStarsDanylo DydenkoGanna GladkaOlena GladkaTo cope with the daily trauma of living in a war-zone, Anna and her children are making a film together about their life in the most surreal surroundings.
- DirectorRoman LiubyiPersonal videos from the phones, camcorders, cameras and GoPros of Ukrainian soldiers are woven into a surreal journey to the front line of the war with Russia. The film shows a bizarre world whose laws are quite different from what we are used to. The behavior is different, the relationships unfold differently and the humour takes on different notes. The heroes wake up and fall asleep, rejoice and cry, always feeling that the recording may end at any moment.
- DirectorYegor TroyanovskyThe film investigates the kidnapping and alleged murder of a young Ukrainian soldier in the Donbas region in 2014. His father, an elderly fisherman from the south of Ukraine, follows the trail of his capturers. Traveling from the calm Azov coastline to industrial conglomerates, and then from the furious mining region to the sleepless capital, the father tries to find witnesses of the young soldier's last hours and minutes, as well as those who could see him dead or alive. When the testimonies are inconsistent, when the lawyers don't show up in courts, when you take one step forward and two steps back, all that remains to the father is to take the justice into his own hands.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsOleksandr MerezhkoOleksandr BatanovVyacheslav BihunA motivational drama about the first candidate for the newly formed Anti-Corruption Court who returns to Ukraine, known as the most corrupt continental state in Europe, to probe himself and the system by participating in the contest.
- DirectorTaras KhymychStarsOleksandra LiutaMykola BerezaFor centuries, the peoples of Transcarpathia were isolated by politics, geography, and poverty. Following WW1, neighboring states eyed Transcarpathia's strategic and material potential, and the region experienced a cultural renaissance. In 1939, as Europe prepared for war, the battle for area control escalated. Against a swell of political and military interventions, the republic of Carpatho-Ukraine was born, sowing the seeds for an independent Ukraine.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsStepan StoykoRostyslav StoykaNatalija BekhtaA 100-year-old Ukrainian scholar's inspirational story about longevity, mentality and nature.
- DirectorIhor StrembitskyiWayfarers is a series of impressionistic documentary portraits of people in a senior citizen's home and in a psychiatric hospital in Kyiv.
- DirectorValentyn VasyanovychStarsMariya VasyanovychOlexandr VasyanovychMaria, aged 82, and her sick son Sashko live out their days in a remote province. Sashko went blind because of serious illness. He's afraid that his mother is dying, but Maria desperately clings to life as she realizes that no one will take care of her son. They may seem to be acting irrationally, but they are heroically unwilling to surrender. Maria buys a calf, Sashko starts to build a tractor, groping his way in the darkness.
- DirectorMax RudenkoThis is a story about the mysterious connection between the present and the past, as reflected in the photo negatives discovered by chance.
- DirectorOstap KostyukThe snow is starting to melt and spring has announced its arrival. Three Carpathian shepherds, just like their fathers and grandfathers before them, set off with their flock into the mountains on a lonely journey lasting several months.
- DirectorAngel AngelovCompromising on their own lives, two Ukrainian researchers go to the classified territory of Cosmodrome Baikonur to watch the launch of the Soyuz rocket. The protagonist, researcher Dmytro Gromov, and the cameraman Angel Angelov are embarking on a dangerous expedition: both have to cross about 50 km of inhospitable desert in order to illegally enter Baikonur's protected hangars and observe the launch of the rocket. The men are risking being taken to jail if found by the Russian military. Under such unfavorable circumstances, the protagonist is discovering his own personality traits which he was not aware of before: in vulnerability and fear, he is now inclined to quit his endeavor altogether. The adrenaline of discovery finally overtakes the fear of getting caught. An investigation of the classified object turns into an exploration of the self.
- DirectorSergey LoznitsaA look at the 2013 and 2014 civil unrest in the Ukrainian capital's central square.
- DirectorYuliia HontarukRoman LiubyiIvan Sautkin«Stronger than arms» shows the evolution of Ukrainian realities from the spontaneous attempt to capture the Administration of the President on December 1 to the bloody battles continuing today in the Donetsk airport. It gives a chance to the viewer to feel the uplifting and desperation of the Maidan and the war in Eastern Ukraine.
- DirectorMantas KvedaraviciusStarsMaryna ArkhipovaOleksandr BuliOleksandr DzhenchakoA man repairs his shing net and goes out to the bridge. Two trams run into each other - nobody is hurt and cables are xed the same day. A small concert is given for factory workers and the sincere performance of a violinist makes them cry. Bombs fall into the sea, no one notices.
- DirectorAlisa KovalenkoStarsAlina ShilovaHome Games is a broken fairytale depicting a crucial moment in the life of Alina, a 20-year-old "million dollar baby" from Kyiv, whose passion for football has a chance of saving her from poverty.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsBohdan SavitskyyRoman KotykTetyana ZhuravelLife is wonderful until one day the sportsman is brutalized, falling a victim to a corrupt criminal justice system. Not giving up, he seeks justice at the European Court of Human Rights.
- DirectorTaras TomenkoStarsBoris GeorgievskiyAnna LevchenkoMykhaylo VoznyukThe extraordinary story of Ukraine's "Slovo House".
- DirectorKrzysztof Kopczynski30 thousand Hasidim journey to Uman in Ukraine to celebrate the Jewish New Year at the gravesite of Rebbe Nachmann. A Ukrainian far-right group erects a cross at the site of Hasidic prayers and builds a monument to Cossacks who slaughtered thousands of Jews and Poles in 1768.
- DirectorSergey BukovskyStarsPolina Bel'skaiaMaryna ChaikaMariia Egorycheva-GlagolevaSurvivors tell the story of the Babi Yar massacre from WWII, where some 100,000 people were massacred by German forces.
- DirectorSergey BukovskyTells the story of the tragic events in Ukraine in 1932-33, the genocidal Great Famine or the Holodomor, and one Welshman's attempts to tell the world what was happening.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsLidia MyroshnychenkoVira KonykA 95-year-old lady recalls her troubled youth while baking bread: we discover secrets of her life about surviving the Europe's largest famine, Holodomor.
- DirectorVolodymyr MulaStarsJohnny BucykJeff ChychrunKen DaneykoThe Untold Story of Hockey Legends
- 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.
- DirectorOleksandr TechynskyiWhite winter blizzard covers everything. We can rely now only on saints, on our prayers. The future has sailed away, with us left behind. Astray, we did not board the magic ship. The task at hand is simple - not to perish in the fog, not to die from the cold, not to get trapped under the ice. Not to fall in our own snares. Or are we all in one big trap anyway? Running around in a small circle, counting those who vanished.
- DirectorOleksandr TechynskyiAn ironic tale about seeking for mutual understanding between desperate Ukrainian porters and their alien clients during annual Rosh-Hashanah pilgrimage of Hasidim to the town of Uman'.
- DirectorDmytro Sukholytkyy-SobchukStarsAnton PleshkaMykola PleshkaDzike BruzhaKrasna Malanka is a story about people from Romanian village Krasna on the territory of Ukraine, which are getting prepared for the Malanka holiday. This holiday is a landmark event for everybody in Krasna, especially for young men, for them it's the main initiation in life. Malanka is a carnival, a queer pagan show where everyone has his own part.
- DirectorFatima OsmanYunus PashaIn 1944 Crimean Tatars has suffered a long road in exile. It was accompanied by famine, illness and loss. In the first years of exile, almost half of deported Crimean Tatars died. But those, who survived, dreamed of only one thing - to return to Crimea. The documentary 1944 tells about the tragedy of all Crimean Tatars through several separate life stories. They are cherished by each Crimean Tatar family and must be remembered by all generations to come.
- DirectorMykola NosokThe story of the everyday life of one of the most unknown countries on the European continent. The film tells the stories of heroes from different parts of Ukraine, their life and life, crafts and art, interesting initiatives and culture. The characters of this film are not interconnected, their worlds are different, however, this difference unites the country.
- DirectorOleg ChornyThis is a remembrance film featuring the picturesque village of Buchak, Cherkassy region, Ukraine where such prominent directors as Yuri Illenko, Sergey Parajanov, Andrei Tarkovsky, Volodymyr Denysenko and others shot their films in the 1950s - 1970s. The film is based on reminiscences by members of film crews and residents of Buchak village.
- DirectorAleksandr AvsharovSvitlana RudiukVasyl Stus dreamed of engaging in literature, not politics; to be a famous poet, not a dissident. But the Soviet special services and the CPSU pushed him to a point of no return. How did such a transformation take place? What was "Yours Vasyl" really like?
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsAleksandr DovzhenkoSerhiy TrymbachSergei EisensteinAn inspiring portrait of Dovzhenko, one of the greatest film directors, known as Homer of Cinema.
- DirectorMykhailo Donets
- DirectorMarina StepanskaGrigoriy is 88 years old, he lives all his life in the lonely Ukrainian village, keeps shooting on 16 mm his neighbors who has no truly remembrance of their past.
- DirectorSvitlana ShymkoGalina YarmanovaThe research film "The Wonderful Years" explores the lives of queer women in Ukraine in the late Soviet Union. It is based on the archive video materials and interviews excerpts from the research projects on LGBT history.
- DirectorSerhii KrymskyThe documentary film is a study of the problems of Ukrainian language in Ukraine. It debunks common myths about Ukrainian language, and explains how those were created, ultimately showing that language is the root of personal identity.
- DirectorOleksandr Tkachuk
- DirectorTaras KhymychStarsTsyan Pen ChenDmytro KarshnevychYuriy KhvostenkoIn 1943, the Ukrainians managed to organize an insurgent army capable of conducting large-scale military operations on two fronts - against the Germans and the Bolsheviks.
- 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.
- DirectorValentyn VasyanovychA young potter, Tymofiy, tries to overcome marital problems by his artistic development.
- DirectorAndrei ZagdanskyStarsLeonid BrezhnevFidel CastroSimone de BeauvoirTwo filmmakers, father and son, reconnect across time, space and the ruins of the Soviet epoch.
- DirectorVolodymyr TykhyyStarsSerhiy ChernyakovOleksander HluhovOleksander KorshakThe Open Access documentary is an anthology film made up of five separate documentaries that take place after the Ukrainian Parliament approves a law on "Access to public information." The film captures their struggles as public activists.
- DirectorOleg VecherovThis captivating documentary is about noted economist and advisor to the Ukrainian government, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn. Featuring, Bohdan himself, talking about his formative experiences, which have shaped his ideals. It follows a very human journey which captures his struggles which lead him to becoming one of the most noted economist advisors in history. This insightful documentary offers today's young leaders the quest to improve human condition.
- DirectorLesya KharchenkoStarsBorys BilynskyYuriy ShukhevychLubomyr HusarThree sides of one hell. Three different fates and philosophies of life, but start was the same. Film about the 20-th century, how it bent and broke people and how they won the fight. Three friends-classmates: monk, prisoner and doctor meeting in 70 years. Two of them are completely blind. But past and future they see clear.
- DirectorSerhiy LysenkoIf we put all Mykola Amosov's patients together, we'll get the population of a small town. And if we count all the people saved by his students and the Amosov Institute - how many will there be? A region?A country? A dozen prominent medical scientists would envy his achievements, but he didn't limited himself to medicine. A doctor, an engineer, a cyberneticist, a writer, a public activist, a scientist, a man of thought - he was a multifaceted and complex personality. We call such people renaissance men. His intellect, health, and creativity were in complete balance and harmony. He was notable for his unique ability to make a great qualitative advancement in everything he touched. What was his secret? What was that inherent spring that drove this brilliant man?
- DirectorOleksandr NavrotskyiA story about the everyday life of people who happen to live in one big house. The residents themselves talk about this outwardly unappealing house both verbally and visually.
- DirectorKsenia GiornoThe story of 3 different generations of Crimean Tatars. Those who remember the deportation in 1944, those who have returned to Crimea end of 80s - beginning of 90s, those who were born in Ukrainian Crimea. All along we witness the birth of a new family... and this time under the flag of occupants..
- DirectorVadym IlkovMaking artistic adventure - a trip of mixed Ukrainian and Belarusian artists (Sergei Zhadan, Alex Vorsoba, Vlad Kreymmer and Olga Mikhailyuk) at Donbas, Ukraine in May 2014 for implementation in an abandoned estate near ALCHEVSK musical and literary exhibition project 'Sections'.
- DirectorYuriy HrytsynaWhat is self-organization? How is democracy created? Who decides a punishment? Where are the center and the periphery of the revolution? Where does it start and where does it end? A brief power vacuum turns into the moment of greatest potentiality, when the beliefs of the past and the strategies for the future are discussed. The film tries to look at the mundane spaces of the city, and to understand whether the historical and revolutionary uncertainty is still there.
- DirectorRoman BondarchukA tragicomic portrait of a two-man team of sheriffs in a remote Ukrainian village disturbed by everyday incidents and political developments.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsVyacheslav BihunJustyn Bihun-SikorskyA documentary visualizes a candid personal letter to Andrei Tarkovsky.
- DirectorAndriy LytvynenkoThe narrative of the film centres around four characters with entirely different attitudes, destinies, and life goals. However, they share the desire to preserve life inside the largest oasis in Ukraine, which is drastically losing its uniqueness.
- DirectorVitaliy ManskiyRussian citizen and Soviet-born Ukrainian native Vitaly Mansky crisscrosses Ukraine to explore Ukrainian society after the Maidan revolution as mirrored within his own large Ukrainian family. They live scattered all across the country: in Lviv, Odessa, the separatist area in Donbas, and Sevastopol on Crimea. The film is looking for reasons of the conflict after which citizens of a single country found themselves on a different sides of barricades including director's own family. The main narrative takes place in the here and now, starting with the turning point of ex-president Victor Yanukovych's flight to Russia. But below the main narrative there is a strong historical undercurrent, because the lives of protagonists of the film are marked by history on every step they take. This undercurrent will carry information about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict's deep roots in centuries of close ties between the two countries.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsMariya ChendejMariya Chendej-TreschakOlena ChyzhovaRediscovering Chendej's role in making one of the best movies, «Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors», a timeless Carpathian love story and cinematic image of Ukrainian spirituality.
- DirectorYuliia HontarukThis is a film about the people and a city lost in time and space. It's about the speed at which life can change and about things that remain constant no matter what. The film is based on the events that occurred after the shelling of the district of Skhidniy in the city of Mariupol on January 24, 2015. Shelling was carried our by pro-Russian militants from "GRAD" multiple launch rocket systems.
- DirectorAndrii LysetskyiIvan Prykhodko is one of the last folk artists in Ukraine. He is self-taught, lives in the countryside, and everything that comes from under his brushes is naive and honest art. Ivan's perception of the world, his inner life, is full of beauty and joy. One day Ivan's paintings are requested for an exhibition at the Art Arsenal, the country's main exhibition center. Will he exchange his small village hut for the glamorous city life and the company of art critics and agents?
- DirectorSimon MozgovyiThe story is about Nazar and Max, two guys from Ukraine, and an old Soviet bike, and the ambitious goal they set themselves to beat the world speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA. This dry salt desert is the meeting point for hundreds of people from all over the world, who spend millions of dollars on their quest to become the next speed racing champion. Nazar and Max spend all their time assembling their bike in a small garage on the outskirts of Kyiv, travelling hundreds of miles and overcoming countless obstacles to make their dreams come true. And then, on the other side of the world, they both come to realize why there are there.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunDmytro TiazhlovStarsAlla VakivYaryna OstapykNazar KulchytskyyA family settles in a picturesque place. Next, a living monster grows next to their house: a 60-meter-high burning slag-heap, an ecological bomb. The fight for their rights brings them to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
- DirectorGeorg GenouxYelizaveta Smit13 adolescents from a school in Donbas which was destroyed during the war in Ukraine, and subsequently rebuilt, share themselves in front of the camera.
- DirectorMasha KondakovaSince the uprising of a pro Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine in 2014, hundreds of woman joined the army. Only a few made it to the front line. Filmmaker Masha embeds herself in the war zone to follow the daily life of three of them. By sharing the intimacy of these fighters, Masha soon becomes a victim of this brotherhood conflict jeopardizing this film and her life.
- DirectorZhanna Maksymenko-DovhychIn a Southern Ukrainian city, the people are out to celebrate an important national holiday. Old and new symbols, the search for identity, and an opportunity for understanding between people who are growing more and more distant from each other, although they live on neighboring streets. This is the portrait of a city and its people. Set in the backdrop of a new war, it is a film about a search for identity: how is it possible to continue to live with one foot stuck in the Soviet past, and with the other moving towards Europe?
- DirectorAlisa PavlovskayaUkraine is hardly visible on the map of the world. At the same time, it is one of the very few countries that have a positive image of future. There is no festival like GOGOLFEST in the whole world. It takes place every year since 2007 in Ukraine. The festival is established by Vlad Troitskyi, a Ukrainian director, screenwriter, actor and the founder of Dakh Theatre. GOGOLFEST breaks the old way of thinking and shatters the ferrous curtain of ghosts of the past. His task is to resume the tradition of the avant-garde.
- DirectorIgor MinaievThis is a film-reflection. The idea of the film is to study the myth of Donbas using archives of documentary and feature films.
- DirectorOleksii HuzFull-length documentary about wedding customs and rites from different parts of Ukraine. The 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.
- DirectorSvitlana Lishchynska
- DirectorVitaliy GavuraStarsAlyona KazanskaIt's a short documentary centering Alyona Kazanska, a Roma activist who retells the story of her life in the Roma community. Based on Alyona's personal diaries, the film inundates the viewer with intimate details of her life and the difficulties she faced. The film also demonstrates Alyona's performed attempt at contemplating and accepting her traumatic experiences linking back to her wedding night.
- DirectorVolodymyr TykhyyStarsDarya AstafievaIhor LutsenkoYevhen NyshchukThis film plays out in Ukraine on a single day: March 14, 2022, the 2,944th day of the Russian-Ukrainian War. In the last few weeks, intense warfare has surreally mixed places and people and created a post-apocalyptic dimension revealing new qualities and roles. Thousands of Kyivans have moved to live in subway stations. The capital city's previously calm suburbs have been transformed into battle zones of destruction and looting by Russian occupiers. People no longer live according to "workdays" or "weekends," counting instead the number of days since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine... The film presents this day in the lives of a pop music star, video engineer, historian, art restorer, polar researcher, and pensioner, who were all forced to radically change their lives.
- DirectorRoman BlazhanAn engaging love letter to Ukraine and its people, Enter Through the Balcony examines how architecture can be a curious pathway to a deeper understanding of culture and place.
- DirectorDimitri LavrinenkoZhenya is 45 years old, he lives in Ukraine, and works as a street cleaner. His mother lives in the US and got him a green card. To maintain it, he has to travel to America every year. Zhenya is looking for a woman and wants to get married. He records his life on video. This movie explores the reality of selfies by using two cameras: one belongs to the protagonist, the other is operated by the director. As a result, the two realities merge in one film.
- DirectorSergii DmytrenkoStarsValerii AnanievOleksandr PolozhynskyiYanina SokolovaThis is an incredible story of Valerii Markus (Valerii Ananiev), a paratrooper of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a veteran of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, a blogger, traveler and author of the bestseller book "Footprints on the Road". To somehow structure in his mind the three years he spent in the war, Valerii Markus leaves Paris for the Way of El Camino de Santiago. But will the paratrooper find peace by following the legendary path of the pilgrims? What changes will Valerii get after all that he has gone through and why is he being drawn to another long journey again and again?
- DirectorMstyslav ChernovStarsMstyslav ChernovEvgeniy MaloletkaLiudmyla AmelkinaAs the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.
- DirectorKornii HrytsiukThe investigative documentary Eurodonbas aims to debunk Soviet myths and bring to light that more than 100 years ago, Donbas was an integral part of the European economy.
- DirectorBrendan BellomoSlava LeontyevUnder roaring fighter jets, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it's easy to make people afraid, it's hard to destroy their passion for living.