Ukrainian documentary “Babi Yar. Context” has won the Golden Eye Award at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.
Directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, the film spotlights the events of the Holocaust in Ukraine.
“I hope that this award will help the film reach a wider audience around the world,” said Loznitsa at the awards ceremony on July 17, according to the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, which commissioned and financed the film.
The Golden Eye was launched in 2015 to award the best documentary presented in one of the sections of the Cannes Film Festival.
This year, “Babi Yar. Context” split the prize with “A Night of Knowing Nothing” by Indian director Payal Kapadia.
The Ukrainian documentary is based on archival material and tells about the events of one of the biggest massacres of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, which murdered 33,771 Jews in Nazi-occupied Kyiv on September 29-30, 1941. The film consists of about 20 episodes, each with a separate completed plot.
Loznitsa said that he hopes the film will be the subject of a meaningful discussion in Ukraine. “Such a conversation is especially important for the country in which these tragic events took place 80 years ago,” he said.
In Ukraine, the film will be shown in the fall of 2021 as part of the 80th anniversary commemoration of the tragedy in Babyn Yar.
This is the seventh film by Loznitsa screened in Cannes.
The director has previously spotlighted other significant historical events in Ukraine. His 2014 “Maidan” documentary captured the major Kyiv uprising, known as the EuroMaidan Revolution, which ousted pro-Kremlin ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. His 2018 feature “Donbass” is a grotesque portrayal of the beginning of Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine. The latter won Loznitsa the Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Award for best director.
Earlier on July 16 Ukrainian co-produced feature film “Olga” was awarded for best screenplay at Cannes Critics Week, a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival.
