Ukrainian Film Series — Winter 2023

Ukrainian Film Series

Thursday, February 9th
Location: MLB Aud 3 (MLB 1200)
Mariupol: The Chronicles of Hell
The fall of one of Ukraine's major cities
Mariupol — ruined but not conquered. The city in the east of Ukraine has survived the occupation, total destruction, and a humanitarian catastrophe. The story of Mariupol is an especially horrifying one, with accounts reported that occupiers were murdering civilians, and actively preventing them from escaping. This film is the story of the survivors, and their life in a hell on Earth. Yet it's also a testament to the power of resilience, and Ukrainian fighting spirit.

Thursday, March 9th
Location: MLB Aud 3 (MLB 1200)
ПОВОДИР (The Guide)
Soviet Ukraine, the 1930s. American engineer Michael Shamrock arrives in Kharkiv with his ten-year-old son, Peter to help "build socialism". He falls in love with an actress Olga who has another admirer, Commissar Vladimir.
Under tragic circumstances, the American is killed and his son is saved from his pursuers by a blind bard (kobzar). With no other chance to survive in a foreign land, the boy becomes his guide.

Thursday, April 6
Location: MLB Aud 3 (MLB 1200)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Ukrainian: Тіні забутих предків
A 1965 Ukrainian film by the filmmaker Sergei Parajanov based on the novel Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Ukrainian writer Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky that tells a "Romeo and Juliet tale" of young Ukrainian Hutsul lovers trapped on opposite sides of a Carpathian family blood feud.[2][3] New York Film Festival program described the film as an "avant-garde, extravagant, sumptuous saga" and a "haunting work" that combined folk songs and atonal music with fantastic camera work.[5] Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is considered to be the most internationally heralded Ukrainian film in history,[6] and a classic of Ukrainian magical realist cinema.[7]