DECADE IN BLUE AND YELLOW: UKRAINIAN DOCUMENTARIES

This programme consists of six documentary films shot during the last decade in Ukraine. This journey started in 2014 during the Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan. Rough Cut, 2014) and led us through the complicated but still bright and colourful ten years of resistance by the people of Ukraine and the blossoming of Ukrainian films.

2024 marks the 10th year since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. First the occupation of Crimea in 2014, followed by the war in the eastern regions of Ukraine, and then the full-scale invasion in 2022. No words can fully describe the ten years of the Russo-Ukrainian war. However, cinema's unique language helps to share the unspeakable experiences of what Ukraine has been and is still going through via more intimate perspectives.

Times of extreme turbulence, while scary and uncertain, allow the culture to cleanse itself from centuries of oppression, extermination, and generational trauma. Contemporary documentary filmmakers rebel against the colonial past and neocolonial practices of the present. Apart from being a creative outlet, cinema has become an important instrument for memory preservation.

These six films were shown in an official selection of Docudays UA IHRDFF in different years. They reflect and rethink not only the fight on the battlefield (Chornobyl 22, 2023) but also raise questions about coming back to peaceful life (No Obvious Signs, 2018), achieving justice (Iron Butterflies, 2023), dreaming about a bright future (We Will Not Fade Away, 2023), and developing and preserving cultural diversity (Roses. Film-Cabaret, 2021).

While our nation pays the price for freedom from blood-hungry terrorist countries, we at least hope that our experiences can serve as proof that truth prevails over malice. We do not film because we fear extinction; we film to prove that our future is worth fighting for.