They say films are inspired by what is happening around us. Therefore, looking at the Ukraine and Russia crises, it won’t be wrong to say that reality does inspire films. Ukrainian filmmakers in recent years have been making world-class films that depict the aggressiveness of their neighbors Russia. Ukrainians are struggling with the devastating consequences of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, as well as near-constant combat in the Donbas region. Here are 5 Ukrainian films that explore the hardships.
Here are 5 Ukrainian films that explore Russia’s aggression
‘Reflection’ (2021), by Valentyn Vasyanovych
Reflection, Valentyn Vasyanovych’s latest film, was a critics’ favorite at last year’s Venice Film Festival. Vasyanovych tells a heartbreaking narrative about a cosmopolitan young doctor. The doctor volunteers to care for the wounded near the conflict zone in Ukraine’s Donbas region. However, he is taken by Russian-speaking forces immediately. The Russian forces camouflage themselves as the locals but are mercenaries to aid the invasion. The doctor goes through a series of horrors of detention, torture, and coercion before abruptly regaining his freedom and embarking on a dizzying journey of rehabilitation with his little daughter in Kyiv.
‘Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom’ (2015), by Evgeny Afineevsky
Evgeny Afineevsky’s docudrama depicts the struggle of Ukrainian citizens and an on-the-ground montage of the protests in 2014. The protests were against the signing of trade agreements with Vladimir Putin. This incident makes a deep root in the current crisis. Afineevsky and his team follow protestors from the front lines. They begin to protest against former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s regime, which had close ties to Putin. They are present when the protests swell to hundreds of thousands in Kyiv’s Maidan square, prompting a deadly crackdown by government forces.
‘Homeward’ (2019), by Nariman Aliev
Premiered in the Cannes Film Festival, the film opens with Mustafa, a hot-tempered 50-year-old man, and his morose 20-year-old son Alim visiting a morgue in Kyiv to retrieve Alim’s older brother, Nazim, dead body. Nazim lost his life in the border battle with Russia. The father-son duo, face atrocities while traveling across the country to bury the dead body at their ancestral house. In a nutshell, the movie depicts how Ukrainian Tatars suffered horrible catastrophes throughout the Soviet era, and how, since 2014, Crimea has been under Russian rule.
‘The Earth Is Blue like an Orange’ (2020), by Iryna Tsilyk
Another powerful documentary that examines the plight of women and children caught up in Ukraine’s multi-year battle in Donbas. As bombs fall and mayhem develops around them, Hanna, a Ukrainian single mother, and her four children struggle to make their home a haven full of life and levity. Tsilyk earned the best directing prize for international documentary at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival for the film.
‘Atlantis’ (2018), Valentyn Vasyanovych
The film by Vasyanovych is not about happy endings. The film is set in the year 2025 after patriotic troops in Eastern Ukraine finally end the long struggle with Russia. But not everything is as it seems in this heartbreaking time-shifting story. The movie navigates through the perspective of a PTSD-stricken soldier who has lost his family, home, and the meaning of life in the war. The film is a powerful reflection on the lasting anguish of war even amid supposed victory. It involves suicide, the processing of mass graves, and ecological disaster.