Ukraine mon Amour

Ukraine mon Amour is a kaleidoscopic program of films by Ukrainian filmmakers and artists, stretching from music culture of the ’70s, insights into Kyiv youth culture, queer short films and short films on architecture and urbanism as far as to documentaries on the gas industry in Ukraine, the rural live in the Carpathian Mountains and fictional films from the dark side of life.

After the screenings there will be time for discussions and exchange and for most of the evenings the film makers themselves will be present, either in person or on screen.

For this second program with films from Ukraine we could collaborate again with Nadia Parfan, film maker, co-founder of 86 Festival of Film and Urbanism and part of TAKFLIX (the only streaming service for Ukrainian cinema).

August 10, 2022, 8pm
Moustache Funk by Oleksandr Kovsh and Vitalii Bard Bardetskyi, 2021 (German/English subtitles), 72 minutes, a documentary about one of the brightest periods of Ukrainian pop music in the late 60˙s.

August 11, 2022, 8pm
Stop-Zemlia by Kate Gornostai, 2021 (German/English subtitles), 122 minutes, Berlinale Winner, Teenage Drama

August 12, 2022, 8pm: Short Films on Ukrainian Youth Culture
Goodby Golowin by Mathieu Grimard, 2019 (German/English subtitles), 14 minutes, can Golowin become his true self after his father˙s death?
The Normal by Diana Gorban, Iryna Hromotska, 2019 (German/English subtitles), 13 minutes, after a failed party, the girl decides to tell about all the sore to a stranger in the park. In the conversation of girls, their vision of the world, a measure of dream and reality opens up.
In Joy, and only in Joy, Marina Roschina, 2018 (German/English subtitles), 27 minutes, a young mother torne between love to a young men and responsability for her son.
Dedicated to the Youth of the World-I, Roman Khimey & Yarema Malashchuk, 2017, 3 minutes, The title of the film is taken from Leni Riefenstahl˙s Olympia slogan which appears at the beginning of her documentary. The ideas of youth are wrapped into fashion brand style that mimics early soviet aesthetics.
Kyiv’s Youth Leaving a Grocery Store, Roman Khimey & Yarema Malashchuk, 2017, 3 minutes, Kyiv’s Youth Leaving a Grocery Store is an homage to the Lumiere brothers’ classic Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory.
Dedicated to the Youth of the World-II, Roman Khimey & Yarema Malashchuk, 2019, 9 minutes, The focus of the film is the techno-rave Cxema and the youth, on which the camera is carefully focused the next morning after the event.

August 17, 2022, 8pm: Short Films on Ukrainian Queer Culture
Chacho by Vitalii Havura, 2020 (German/English subtitles), 20 minutes, Yanush a young gay Romani, about to get married, decides to sneak away with his lover.
Exarch by Nadia Parfan and Maria Stoianova, 2014 (German/English subtitles), 10 minutes, A young Orthodox priest, fed up with too much intolerance and hypocrisy at the Kyiv Pechery Lavra, leaves service and finds himself among gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people as well as those living with HIV/AIDS.
Aftertaste by Yuri Katynskiy, 2017 (German/English subtitles), 20 minutes, returning to his home town, a young guy meets old friends, together they enjoy the evening and get closer.
Kittens by Zhanna Ozirna, 2016 (German/English subtitles), 8 minutes, two girls in a Lviv apartment start a casual conversation about their common future. In the midst of the traditional Ukrainian life remnants the usual dreams about future stumble upon the unbreakable social norms and customs.
Bond by Zhanna Ozirna, 2018 (German/English subtitles), 30 minutes, your family can accept that you’re not like others. But could you accept that your family is normal?

August 18, 2022, 8pm: Short Films on Architecture and Urbanism
The Bridge by Dmytro Burko, Olena Moskovchuk ans Oksana Nosach, 2016 (German/English subtitles), 13 minutes, Birth, death and the momories of the Rybalsky cable bridge.
70 streets by Maks Lyzhov, 2016 (German/English subtitles), 6 minutes, When Brovary village officially became a town, one third of its residents were communist. After 60 years and three revolutions such proportion didn’t change: thirty percent of its streets keep the names of the former empire.
Modernims. Brutalism. Postmodernism by Roman Blazhan & Mikhail Volkov, 2018 (German/English subtitles), 6 minutes, a wonderful representation of Kyiv’s eclectic architectural beauty. Unfortunately we might be seeing the last of some of these outstanding buildings.
Beaches of Kyiv by Roman Blazhan & Mikhail Volkov, 2020 (German/English subtitles), 3 minutes, a visual essay exploring Kyivan’s favorite summer pastime.
Orthodox Chic by Roman Blazhan & Mikhail Volkov, 2020 (German/English subtitles), 3 minutes, shows the frenzy of religious architecture that occurred in independent Ukraine.
Enter Through The Balcony by Roman Blazhan & Mikhail Volkov, 2020 (German/English subtitles), 26 minutes, a Documentary about Ukrainian make-shift balconies, looking inside balconies and their owners in cities across Ukraine. Through the history of the balconies the film explores the history of Post-Soviet Ukraine — life, culture, and the relationships between personal and public space in cities.

August 19, 2022, 8pm
Heat Singers by Nadia Parfan, 2019 (German/English subtitles), 63 minutes, for many years, Ivan Vasyliovych has been the trade union leader at Ivano-Frankivsk TeploKomunEnergo, a municipal heating company in western Ukraine. His magnum opus is the trade union choir for mechanics, repairmen, dispatchers, book-keepers and other employees.

August 20, 2022, 8pm
My Thoughts Are Silent by Antonio Lukich, 2019 (German/English subtitles), 104 minutes, Vadim, a young sound engineer, gets a simple yet important task—to record the voices of Transcarpathian animals.

The film program continues in fall/winter 2022 with:
As Far as Possible by Ganna Iaroshevych, 2021 (German/English subtitles), 71 minutes, a documentary on a young German man whose dream is to lead a simple life far from civilization. He lives in the Ukrainian mountains and is taking care of endangered animals—water buffaloes.
The Living Fire by Ostap Kostyuk, 2016 (German/English subtitles), 77 minutes, a 4-year long documentary project on 3 generations of shepherds in the Carpathians.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Serghiy Paradzhanov, 1964 (German/English subtitles), 95 minutes, a classic. The drama plays in the Carpathian Mountains of 19th-century Ukraine, love, hate, life and death among the Hutsul people are as they’ve been since time began. Ivan meets Marichka, the daughter of his father’s killer, they fall in love with each other. Ivan leaves for work returning before winter and marry Marichka, but Marichka dies suddenly. Ivan marries another woman—but he still longs for Marichka.
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange by Iryna Tsilyk, 2020 (German/English subtitles), 74 minutes, a Sundance winner, the film is based on the observation of the family living in a small city in the red zone of Donbas, one of the most severely damaged by shelling. In 2014–15 they slept in the cellar of their house every night. The house of their closest neighbors was destroyed by a mine. The children’s school was ruined too.– Despite all these circumstances, the protagonists remain positive and even try to shoot films about the war by themselves. The war in Ukraine still goes on, but so does life.
Gateway by Volodymyr Tykhy, 2017 (German/English subtitles), 107 minutes, a drama and comedy at the same time from the forbidden zone of Chernobyl where there are only wild beasts, rusalkas and stalkers.
Atlantis by Valentyn Vasyanovych, 2019 (German/English subtitles), 108 minutes, a Venice festival winner. Eastern Ukraine, in the nearest future. A desert unsuitable for human habitation. Sergey, a former soldier having trouble adapting to his new reality, joines the volunteer Black Tulip mission dedicated to exhuming war corpses.
Bad roads by Natalіya Vorozhbyt, 2020 (German/English subtitles), 124 minutes,the film portrays diverse human responses that empower survival through the chaos of war. Five stories are set along the roads of Donbas during the war.

Our great thanks goes to:
Goethe Institute, which made the creation of German subtitles possible for this film porgram as 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.
Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien
Bundesverband Soziokultur
NEUSTART Kultur