Several Ukrainian films will be screened during the “Bridges. East of West Fest” festival, which is being held in Brussels, Belgium Jan. 17-21 in the Bozar Center of Fine Arts.
The festival opened with Ukrainian director Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s avant-garde silent film masterpiece “Earth” (1930). The rest of Ukrainian program at the festival is made up of four new films that have already received international acclaim. The director of each film will be present during its screening. The four films are:
“Falling” (directed by Maryna Stepanska)
“Falling” tells the story of two young people going through critical moments in their lives. One day they meet by accident, and together have one of the happiest days of their lives.
“The Stronghold” (directed by Yuriy Kovalov)
This is a fantasy film about a young boy, Vitko, transported by magic 1,000 years into the past, to the times of the Kyivan Rus. In a battle between good and evil, now Vitko has the power to influence the future, and he has a magic stone and will help the future turn out the way we know it today.
“Black Level” (directed by Valentyn Vasyanovych)
Kostya, a 50-year-old wedding photographer, is going through a midlife crisis. Nothing he owns in his life brings him happiness anymore. His father is paralyzed by a stroke, and his girlfriend leaves him. Kostya tries to deal with his daily misery by capturing moments of other people’s happiness, while he himself is unhappy…
This film was nominated as Ukraine’s candidate for the 2017 Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category.
“The Trial. The State of Russia Against Oleg Sentsov” (by Askold Kurov)
This is a documentary film about Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker and Euromaidan activist from Crimea. In May 2014 he was arrested by the Russian security services for being opponent to the Kremlin’s occupation of the peninsula. He was held in custody for a year, subjected to a sham trial, and then sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The Ukrainian section of the festival is called “Ukraine On Film,” and been held each year since 2016. In previous years, apart from new Ukrainian films, classic films such as “Earth” and “Eleventh” have been screened during this section.
Along with the films from Ukraine, the festival will feature movies from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova – with each of the countries having its own section in the festival.
