Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin 2022 announced the program

Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin 2022 has announced the program – a complete list of films and events of the festival!

The third edition of the festival takes place in difficult times for Ukraine. The program included feature films and documentaries created both before and during the full-scale invasion. 
The program includes 4 feature films and 4 documentaries of 2021-2022 and 2 author’s selections of short films. One of them is devoted to the topic of growing up, and the other “SPIRITS OF THE CITIES” is to the topic of urbanism. Some of the cities shown in the films of this program were completely destroyed by Russian forces after the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia. 

“This year, our team felt more responsibility during the preparation of the program, we don’t think we need to explain why.  The selected films touch on the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian national traditions and history, decolonization, analysis of the Soviet past of our country and the power of their propaganda,” said the curators of the film festival.

Important  part of the film festival will be the opening ceremony of the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin 2022.

The event will take place in creative cooperation with the Dovzhenko Center . The festival team wishes to express its support for the center and admires its activities for the preservation and research of Ukrainian film heritage. We are closely following the course of events surrounding the center, which began in August with the statement of the State Cinema of Ukraine on the restructuring of the center, which would actually mean its liquidation. 

Specialists of the Dovzhenko Center have chosen a number of Ukrainian silent films from the 1920s, the time of the VUFKU, which will become the basis of a unique audio-visual performance. Under the curatorship of the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin team, Ukrainian videographer and editing director Rita Hasanova works on the visual part of the performance, Ukrainian composer and performer Maryana Klochko creates music, and Ukrainian actress Solomiya Kyrylova together with Ukrainian contemporary dancers develop the choreography. These three artists are currently in Berlin on a three-month residency ‘Artists at Risk’ sponsored by the Goethe-Institut.

“For the past several decades, the Dovzhenka Center has been restoring, researching and showing the rich heritage of Ukrainian cinematography to Ukrainian and international audiences – starting with the silent films of the 1930s. Thus, the history of film production, which was labeled as “Soviet” and later appropriated by Russia, is being returned to Ukraine by the Center Dovzhenka,” she says Valentina Zalevska, film curator and co-founder of the Ukrainian Film Festival in Berlin.

The opening ceremony will take place on October 26 at the Colosseum Kino in Berlin, which will become the festival center of the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin 2022.

Festival program:

VISION OF THE BUTTERFLY (discovery film) / Maxim Nakonechny / Croatia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Ukraine  / 2022 / 107`

PAMPHIR (closing film)  / Dmytro Suholytkyi-Sobchuk / Ukraine, France, Poland, Chile, Luxembourg / 2022 / 100`

REFLECTION / Valentin Vasyanovych / Ukraine / 2021 / 128` 

KLONDIKE / Marina Er Horbach / Urkaina, Turkey / 2022 / 100`

Documentaries:

DAY OF THE UKRAINIAN VOLUNTEER / Volodymyr Tykhy / Ukraine, Poland /2022 / 77` 

DIARY OF THE BRIDE OF CHRIST  / Marta Smerechynska / Ukraine / 2022 / 90`

INFINITY ACCORDING TO FLORIAN  / Oleksiy Radinsky  / Ukraine, USA / 2022 / 70`

FRAGILE MEMORY / Ihor Ivanko / Ukraine, Slovakia / 2022 / 85`

Photo: Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin press service