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Bozar CINEMA presents two days devoted to Ukrainian cinema, offering an opportunity to discover its greatest achievements in the 20th and 21st centuries. Ukrainian cinema is currently experiencing a period of great creative ferment. Films made in recent years bear witness to changes in the public mood and to the path taken from the cultural isolation of the Soviet period to the rebirth of the country’s cinema.
Ukrainian cinema is currently experiencing a creative boom. A number of films made in Ukraine over recent years have reacted to changes in the country, reflecting the path the country has to take to move from the cultural isolation of the Soviet period towards a renaissance of Ukrainian cinema. The course of history has always driven the Ukrainians to stand up for their identity. The documentary, conceptual cinema of Sergei Loznitsa (who came to Bozar in 2015 to present Maidan) and the visionary works of Miroslav Slaboshpytsky have already attracted the attention of audiences well beyond Europe.

Ukraine on Film has been organised in cooperation with Arthouse Traffic, which was founded in 2003 and aims to promote art cinema and Ukrainian cinema by distributing and producing films. Arthouse Traffic also organises the Odessa International Film Festival.

Programme :
23 January 2016

4 pm The Guide – Oles Sanin (Ukraine, 2014, 122’)
In the presence of the director
Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s: the US engineer Michael Shamrock arrives in Kharkiv with Peter, his ten-year-old son. The father is killed in tragic circumstances, but his son is saved by a blind minstrel, whose guide he becomes. Their journey is a moving story of courage in the heart of Ukraine, as the country faced its hardest times.

6 pm All Things Ablaze – Olexandr Techinskiy, Aleksey Solodunov, and Dmitry Stoykov (Ukraine, 2014, 90’)
In the presence of the director Olexandr Techinskiy
All Things Ablaze is not about the revolution that changed Ukraine, but shows a rising that ends in bloodshed. At first, a noble bid for freedom comes up against the dark force of repressive authorities. Finally, following confusion and chaos, people’s anger is transformed into indignation. When the first victims fall, the frontier between good and evil is blurred. And everything catches fire…
The film was shot during the demonstrations on the Euromaidan, from November 2013 to February 2014. All Things Ablaze won the MDR Film Prize for an excellent Eastern European documentary at DOK Leipzig in 2014.

8 pm Gámer – Oleg Sentsov (Ukraine, 2011, 92 min)
Alex devotes most of his time to his passion for the virtual world, putting his studies at risk, to the despair of his single mother. Oleg Sentsov was arrested in May 2014 by Russia’s Federal Security Service, on suspicion of having plotted terrorist acts in Crimea. Despite strong international reaction, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in August 2015. Russian and Ukrainian film-makers are currently distributing a film about Sentsov, The Trial, in order to make public opinion aware of his situation.

24 January 2016

4 pm The Cossacks – Volodémér Dakhno (Soviet Union, 1967–1995, 80 min)
(How the Cossacks Cooked Their Kulesh; How the Cossacks Played Football; How the Cossacks Rescued Their Brides; How the Cossacks Became Olympic Heroes; How the Cossacks Met People from Another Planet).
This series recounts the adventures of three Ukrainian Cossacks who travel around the world and meet people from different countries and epochs, as well as gods and even extra-terrestrials.
Made up of short animated films, produced in the Soviet Republic of Ukraine by the Kievnauchfilm studies, the series has often been shown by Ukrainian television stations. Its characters have become iconic for several generations of Ukrainian television viewers.

6 pm The Tribe – Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (Ukraine, 2014, 130 min)
A young deaf-mute boy enters a special boarding school. He tries to find his place within the hierarchy of the school community, which is organised as a local mafia, ruled by “The King”. The Tribe has been shown at numerous festivals (including Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Toronto) and won the Prix FIPRESCI at the European Film Awards in 2014.

8.30 pm The Eleventh Year – Dziga Vertov (Soviet Union, 1928, 52 min)
introduced by Ivan Kozlenko, Director General of the “Dovzhenko Centre” National Archive
A film that celebrates the success of Soviet Ukraine on the occasion of the eleventh anniversary of the October Revolution. The Eleventh Year was made without a screenplay, with the movement of the camera replacing the script.