Turbulent times tend to inspire art. Ukraine’s tragic past and thorny present gave inspiration for many films released in 2017.
The Kyiv Post picked some of the most interesting films about Ukraine released this year. The list includes movies by Ukrainian filmmakers as well as international co-productions.
‘A Distant Barking of Dogs’
The documentary “A Distant Barking of Dogs” by Danish filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont centers on Ukraine’s eastern Donbas on the front line of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The movie follows a 10-year-old Ukrainian boy Oleg for one year to show what it is like to grow up amid war. Funded by Denmark, Sweden and Finland, the film received an award for the Best First Appearance at the world’s largest documentary film festival International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November.
‘The Trial: The State of Russia vs. Oleg Sentsov’
This documentary by Russian director Askold Kurov features a sham Russian trial of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov of Crimea. He has been held in Russia as a political prisoner for over three years now. Sentsov was found guilty of preparing a terrorist attack and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Many filmmakers all over the world, including Hollywood stars like Meryl Streep, stood up to support the campaign to free Sentsov. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival as a part of the Berlinale Special section in February.
In “The Trial: The State of Russia vs. Oleg Sentsov,” Ukrainian filmmaker Sentsov gestures during a court hearing. Russia has imprisoned him for three years for opposing the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea. (Courtesy)
‘Frost’
A drama co-produced by Lithuania, France, Poland and Ukraine, mixes real events of Russia’s war on Ukraine and an artistic plot. Directed by Lithuanian filmmaker Šarunas Bartas, “Frost” unfolds around a Lithuanian man who travels to the front line in Donbas, where he gets to know war correspondents, falls in love and discovers that the real war is nothing like his romanticized perception of it. The film stars French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis. “Frost” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
‘School No. 3’
Another documentary about the war zone in Eastern Ukraine features lives of 13 teenagers, whose school in Mykolayivka, a city in Donetsk Oblast, got demolished and later rebuilt. While there no battles, wounded people or destroyed buildings are shown, the war is felt in the air. Directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Yelizaveta Smith and German artist Georg Genoux, the film won Grand Prix in the Generation 14+ category at the 67th Berlinale Film Festival in February.
‘Bitter Harvest’
Set in Soviet Ukraine, the drama reconstructs the Holodomor, an artificial famine enforced by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s regime in the 1930s that made millions of Ukrainians starve to death. The film centers on a story of an artist who fights for saving his beloved woman from starvation. Directed by a Canadian director with Ukrainian roots George Mendeluk, the film mixes romance and action all while telling the story of one of the biggest tragedies in Ukraine’s history.
