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Focus: Women and the Ukrainian Film Industry

Kids playing in a former Wehrmacht military base. A young couple trying to shut out the world for just one night. A car speeding through the silent city at dawn. A thirteen-year-old boy desperately searching for his dad’s sneakers. A girl returning home after a year away. And a four-year-old girl waking up to the sound of an air raid. Charmingly animated, melancholically wistful, impeccably timed, and both realistic and brutally raw, these films by talented Ukrainian women filmmakers capture the lived reality amid a war conflict. Without pathos or self-pity, and employing a variety of techniques and sophisticated approaches, they offer different perspectives on the current situation in Ukraine. This special program of Ukrainian shorts demonstrates the incredible power of art, the film medium, and especially, Ukrainian filmmakers.

We will present the current reality of the film industry in Ukraine. We will discuss how it is possible to keep the film industry running against the backdrop of war and what role women play in it. The programme is produced in cooperation with the Audiovisual Centre of Kino Kavalírka.

Our guest will be Sasha Prokopenko – film curator and Head of Programming at Kyiv International Short Film Festival.

The discussion will be followed by screenings of short films by Ukrainian women filmmakers.

Tickets can be bought HERE.

 

Films:

 

Dad’s Sneakers

 

It Is Quiet Here

 

It‘s a Date

 

Waking Up in Silence

 

As It Was

 

Mariupol: A Hundred Nights


Sasha Prokopenko

Sasha Prokopenko is a festival programmer, film curator and translator based in Kyiv, Ukraine. For the past five years, she has been a Head of Programming at the Kyiv International Short Film Festival. Sasha has participated in several film festivals as a curator, mentor, and jury member. She has also collaborated with the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival and Ukraine's first LGBTQIA+ film festival, Sunny Bunny. Since 2016, she has worked at the independent film distribution company, KyivMusicFilm, which distributes films on art, music and culture. Amongst other projects, Sasha has programmed for 100 Films in 100 Minutes, INTRO film festival about music and culture, and Kino Susidiv, the international film festival in Uzhhorod, Zakarpattia. In 2024, Sasha was selected for the Berlinale Talents program.