SECTION: Spotlight: Ukraine

 33FFC Sektions Button SPOTLIGHT

Ukrainian cinema continues to be one of the most creativefilm landscapes in Europe. With Spotlight: Ukraine, the FFC is putting Ukrainian cinema in the spotlight for the third time since 2016. But Ukraine's presence is also an integral part of the FFC programme in other sections: in the Competition, in the Spectrum and in EcoEast.

On the Saturday of the festival, the "Ukrainian Day" offers the opportunity to "look through" Ukrainian films from early in the morning until late in the evening; Ukrainian refugees are given the opportunity to attend screenings of the entire FFC programme on this day without paying an admission fee. A panel discussion on 10.11. will discuss how filmmakers from Ukraine deal with the challenges - threatened by enemy fire, themselves as soldiers at the front, confronted with considerable logistical and financial constraints and emotional challenges that can hardly be put into words. 

The Ukrainian feature films and documentaries at this year's FFC show how Ukrainian filmmakers deal with their everyday life in a permanent state of emergency, how young Ukrainians try to live a somehow "normal" everyday life despite the war, with all its usual fractures between coming-of-age and homophobia, mother-daughter relationship, cultural heritage and criminal case. And the threats, fears and crimes of a war you thought would never happen again. In a life in which they are confronted with enormous psychological stress that could foreseeably lead to widespread collective traumatisation of society.

The presence of Ukrainian films at the FFC shows how broad the range of topics is that filmmakers from the country plagued by the Russian war of aggression deal with - and how relevant their films are also outside the country whose everyday life and soul they illuminate in depth and with a mixture of investigative ambition and willpower, sadness and - that too - lightness.

How Far is Close

How Far is Close

How Far is Close

Inga Pylypchuk
Germany, Ukraine / 2023 / 32 min
"In 1986 she had me, in 2022 I had her." Inga has lived in Berlin for 15 years, now her mother is coming behind her, fleeing the war in Ukraine. About everyday life in a war that is far and near at the same time, between buying fish, learning German, ...
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SMOULDERING: THE TREE OF LIFE

SMOULDERING: THE TREE OF LIFE

SMOULDERING: THE TREE OF LIFE

Nadiia Mykolaienko
Ukraine / 2023 / 32 min
Destroyed cultural heritage: The monumental mosaics from the Soviet era reflect the turbulent history of the city of Mariupol. Now they are part of a ruined city. And the photographer Stanislav Ivanov, who documented them before the war, had to leave ...
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PHOTOPHOBIA

PHOTOPHOBIA

PHOTOPHOBIA

Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík
SK/CZ/UA / 2023 / 71 min
Everyday life underground: the inhabitants of Kharkiv flee from the Russian bombs into the underground. For an indefinite period of time. 12-year-old Niki and 11-year-old Vika play in the empty trains and tunnels, but they would rather walk up the ...
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YOU KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE ABOUT WAR

YOU KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE ABOUT WAR

YOU KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE ABOUT WAR

Olha Tsybulska
NO/UA / 2023 / 35 min
Young people talk about the consequences of the Russian war of aggression for their society. Some have been thrown off course, some are committed, some fear their own hatred that is slowly growing within them. How should things continue after the ...
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SASHENKA

SASHENKA

SASHENKA

Alexander Zhovna
UA / 2022 / 135 min
The Soviet Union under Brezhnev. A married couple is shot dead in a Ukrainian village. The wheelchair-bound son, raised as a girl by his parents, is left an orphan. The film noir with clear Hitchcock motifs immerses the audience in a family whose ...
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