The Saturday of the festival is "Ukrainian Day" at the Cottbus Film Festival. Seven of the ten films from Ukraine can be seen on 11 November. As in the previous year, free admission to all films in the FFC programme on this day is available on presentation of a valid Ukrainian passport at the box office. With a total of ten films, the FFC is putting Ukrainian cinema centre stage throughout the festival week for the third time since 2016, demonstrating that Ukrainian cinema continues to be one of the most creative film landscapes in Europe. The films will be shown across all sections in Spotlight: Ukraine, in the Competition, in Spektrum and in EcoEast.
The competition entry FOREVER-FOREVER by Anna Buryachkova (UA/NL) provides a rare insight into the complex emotional world of the post-Soviet "90s kids" growing up in Kyiv. YOU KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE ABOUT WAR (Olha Tsybulska, NO/UA) is also set in Kyiv and shows the underground and party scene between excessive partying and war trauma.
BARTKA celebrates its world premiere: director Volodymyr Baku takes a precise look at forestry in the Ukrainian Carpathians and questions the meaning of deforestation.
LESSONS OF TOLERANCE is a film that was made in times of war and yet is still a comedy: Arkadii Nepytaliuk playfully scratches at Eastern European prejudices against the LGBTQIA+ community and educates with the necessary non-seriousness. A panel discussion in the Stadthaus on Friday, 10 November at 2 pm will also discuss how filmmakers from Ukraine work under extremely difficult conditions.