The current “Ukrainian Film Festival in Berlin”, which was held at the end of October under the patronage of the Goethe Institute, the Medienbord Berlin-Brandenburg Film and Film Projects Support Fund and the German Foreign Ministry, revealed a very important aspect: despite Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine, the country’s filmmakers continue to work and do it productively. Four feature films and four documentaries were screened at the festival in the German capital. They tell about the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian culture, the Soviet past and the power of its propaganda, which has survived to this day.
This year, at the Cannes Film Festival, the premiere of the film “Vision of a Butterfly” by Maxim Nakonechny took place. Filmed prior to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, it tells the grim story of war trauma: A Ukrainian woman returns home after two months of enemy captivity in eastern Ukraine to discover she is pregnant. The child’s father is a jailer who raped her when she was a prisoner of war. Before the premiere of the film in Cannes, DW interviewed its director Maxim Nakonechny.
Nakonechny’s film was awarded awards not only in Cannes, but also in Ukraine. For the first time, the director was able to see how his work was received at home. “It was really heartbreaking, the first viewing in my homeland touched me very much,” says the 32-year-old director, who came to Berlin for a Ukrainian film festival. “We really didn’t expect this tough film to get such a positive response in Ukraine,” he admitted. To many Ukrainians, this story seems like a kind of re-traumatization, but “since the film also has some kind of happy ending, or at least indicates that one could happen, many believe that such a film was necessary.”
Strong Ukrainian cinema may be lost
Films such as “Vision of a Butterfly” illustrate the importance of Ukrainian films for the country’s population. They increase the morale of people and give them strength. In addition, film festivals like the one in Berlin are great for spreading Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian cinema, director Nakonechny believes. They offer a good opportunity for dialogue with an international audience. “Sharing information is one thing, but films can bring a much deeper understanding on a personal and humanitarian level.”
The Ukrainian Film Festival in Berlin is being held for the third year. Anastasia Pugach, a member of the organizing committee of the festival, clarifies that its main goal is to popularize Ukrainian cinema and acquaint the international audience with its creative potential: “We want to draw the attention of the whole world to Ukraine. Our main goal is to show the versatility of Ukrainian cinema, to acquaint viewers with the best Ukrainian feature and documentary films”.
It is important especially now, in wartime, to draw attention to what is actually happening in Ukraine. “Filmmakers want to show what a strong cinema is in Ukraine, and that they can lose it,” Anastasia Pugach emphasizes. The situation with the cinema there is now very difficult. “All film financing opportunities, film production are currently on hold. Filmmakers are looking for money to finish the footage that has already been shot,” she says.
Documentaries about the war instead of fiction
Many directors in Ukraine are now mainly working on documentaries, Anastasia Pugach emphasizes. “They film war crimes and war on the front lines or in cities that were occupied and then liberated. Other filmmakers are in the army. They are soldiers now,” she says.
And director Maxim Nakonechny, who mounts videos for the Ukrainian army on a voluntary basis, also went to the front as a documentary filmmaker. “For documentary filming, you don’t need a lot of staff and a lot of equipment,” he explains. “About a month ago, I was in the Kharkiv region. We filmed the exhumation of mass graves. This is part of a joint project of several directors to follow the processes that we consider important.”
“Through films we maintain our identity”
The film industry in Ukraine continues to exist despite the war, because the war also raises existential problems,” Maxim Nakonechny emphasizes. He sees his responsibility to society in the search for identity in his films: “Not only our territory and our people are under attack, but also our culture, our identity – our very existence as an independent entity when the nation and society are threatened. It is through films that we maintain our identity.”
That is why he also welcomes the few film festivals that are still organized and held in Ukraine. “The film industry is doing everything it can to survive. We recently premiered at Kyiv Critic’s Week. It’s really cool what they’re doing. They adapt to air raid alerts and power outages, but still keep going. It’s very inspiring,” – Maxim Nakonechny says with enthusiasm.
Film festivals such as the Kyiv Critic’s Week or the Ukrainian Film Festival in Berlin help Ukrainian cinema survive. “All the official programs of major film festivals this year included Ukrainian films. And if you watch the films themselves, you understand that they were not selected out of pity at all. We have reached a certain level of cinema that we need to save,” the young , but already a well-known Ukrainian director Maxim Nakonechny.
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