Some Ukrainian films
This weekend it is two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, after years of incursions, the annexation of Crimea ten years ago (in March 2014), and various forms of hybrid assaults. Russia’s intention has been to eradicate Ukraine as an independent state and to destroy its cultural heritage (see for example these reports from UNESCO, The Conversation, OHCHR, and Euronews), and while there is nothing I can do about that, I have at least been writing about Ukrainian cinema during these two years, in English and Swedish, to help make it more visible. Below are links to two articles published elsewhere and then a top ten list of Ukrainian classics.
Here is something I wrote about Larisa Shepitko and her wonderful film Wings (1966): https://fredrikonfilm.blogspot.com/2022/04/wings-1966.html
And here is an article about the film Little Vera (1988) which is set and shot in Mariupol, now destroyed by the Russians: https://fredrikonfilm.blogspot.com/2022/11/little-vera-1988.html
In a vote organised by the Dovzhenko Centre to select the hundred best Ukrainian films of all time, the following films make out the top ten. The spelling and translations are complicated, and you may know some of these films under different titles:
The winner was Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Tini zabutykh predkiv 1965, it has various English titles) by Sergei Parajanov, followed by Earth (Zemlia 1930) by Oleksandr Dovzhenko, The Man with the Movie Camera (Liudyna z Kinoaparatom, or Chelovek s kino-apparatom, 1929) by Dziga Vertov, The Tribe (Plemia 2014) by Myroslav Slabosjpytskyi, The Stone Cross (Kaminnyi khrest 1968) by Leonid Osyka, The Asthenic Syndrome (Astenichnyi syndrom 1989) by Kira Muratova, Flights in Dreams and In Reality (Poloty uvi sni ta naiavu 1983) by Roman Balayan, White Bird with a Black Drawing (Bilyi ptakh z chornoiu oznakoiu 1972) by Yuri Ilyenko, A Long Goodbye (Dovhi provody 1971) by Kira Muratova, and in tenth place Vavilon XX (1980) by Ivan Mykolaychuk.
A few of the films are well-known, such as The Man with the Movie Camera, but most are unknown outside of Ukraine except to dedicated experts.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a mix of poetry and magical realism, or surrealism, and is not easily described in words. It has a lot of song and dance, revelations, nature mysticism, and folk tales; a unique experience.
The Tribe is the most recent film on the list, a brutal story about a group of young people at a school for the hearing impaired who pass the time with beatings, robbery, theft, and prostitution. The film keeps a cool distance from the action, alternating between long shots with a stationary camera and long shots with a steadicam following the characters in corridors and stairwells. The film has no spoken dialogue; all communication is through sign language and body language. It is still easy to follow what is happening, but it is definitely not a film for sensitive viewers. The inspiration is probably Michael Haneke and Stanley Kubrick.
The Stone Cross is available to stream on a Ukrainian streaming service, Takflix, with English subtitles. It is a lugubrious black-and-white film about a poor farmer in the late 19th century who plans to emigrate with his family from Ukraine to Canada, and the anguish he experiences at having to leave his homeland. Also available on Takflix is White Bird with Black Label, a film with similarities to Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Although more conventional, the similarities lie in its portrayal of rural people in a seemingly animated landscape, where dance and music play a prominent role, as do legends. Set in the borderland between Ukraine and Romania in the years before, during and after World War II, the film centres on three brothers. The film's director, Yuri Ilyenko, was the cinematographer on Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.
The Asthenic Syndrome and A Long Goodbye are both directed by Kira Muratova, a very interesting filmmaker but I have seen only two of her films. Among connoisseurs of Ukrainian cinema, she ranks as one of the best. The Asthenic Syndrome is a 150-minute film unlike any other. The first 40 minutes depict a woman's aggressive trauma after the death of her husband, and the rest of the film is a misanthropic depiction of life in the Soviet Union; loosely connected scenes where people are either brutal to each other or fail to communicate with each other. It was banned, supposedly the last film to be banned in the Soviet Union, but the ban did not last long. The absurd is a consistent feature of Muratova’s filmmaking. Perhaps not in the first two films, but then it grew stronger. Her film style has also been described with words like "expressive," "metafilmic," "avant-garde," "metaphorical," and "associative." In other words, her work is neither Soviet social realism nor classic film narrative, but a more distinct art film aesthetic.
Earth and The Man with the Movie Camera are well-known classics, Earth is a lyrical depiction of a Ukrainian peasant society, and The Man with the Movie Camera is part of the wave of experimental, montage-based cinema popular in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. It was shot in Kyiv, Odesa, and Moscow.
I have not seen Flights in Dreams and In Reality or Vavilon XX. But they too are available on TakFlix so I might have a go at it. You can see what else they have here.