WE DIDN’T SEND YOU THERE. THE SOVIET-AFGHAN WAR
Film by Olena Zashko and Liza Sivets
The Soviet Union's leadership concealed the Afghan war for a long time. Over ten years, more than 160,000 Ukrainians fought in Afghanistan. They all went "to perform international duty" and returned to independent Ukraine, which "did not owe" the Afghan warriors - they were sent to war by a state that no longer existed. This film tells the stories of four former Afghans who fought in different years and who talk about their experiences of the war, their physical and emotional trauma and whether they were able to overcome it. The veterans recall their experiences in different ways, but the trauma they suffer is the same - the indifference of the state and the aloofness of society.
I DIDN’T BREAK DOWN. UKRAINIAN WOMEN IN THE 1990s
Film by Anna Yeresko and Anna Tsyhyma
To go to Poland with a checkered bag full of soldering irons and kirza boots, to start her own business in Ukraine’s completely new fashion industry, to flee the country and wander in refugee camps - these are only three of the possible ways that a Ukrainian woman could choose in 1990s to survive and feed her family. The stories of women's survival during the crisis of the first decade of Ukraine's independence resemble dramatic movie scripts. Watching their stories, you can’t help but ask yourself: would we have survived in the 1990s? The film is about the resilience and survival skills that Ukrainian women mastered so that we can take care of ourselves today.
SELF-RETURN TO CRIMEA
Film by Nataliya Gumenyuk and Anna Tsyhyma
What did Crimean Tatars go through when returning to Crimea after decades of exile in the late 1980s? The right to buy a house, get a residence permit without which they cannot be hired -- these rights were ones that Crimean Tatars had to fight for through numerous protests, constant pressure, and negotiations with local officials. Moreover, they faced blatant racism on a daily basis. The government-controlled media pummeled the population with propaganda. Yet pickets from Moscow to Taman and throughout Crimea, petitions, peaceful marches, self-immolation, and, finally, the self-return of land, which the authorities called squatting - all this eventually worked. This film is the story of an entire people's return, a story of victory in opposition to the system and thanks to cohesion. However, many had to lose their home for the second time after the Russian occupation of the peninsula in 2014.
EVERYTHING IS ALLOWED! NEW AMUSEMENT IN THE 1990s
Film by Ksenia Marchenko
The film is about the New Amusements that emerged in the 1990s and the new dimension of freedom for the post-Soviet individual. The first nightclubs in Kyiv and Kharkiv; the first sex shop in Ivano-Frankivsk; the first casino in Sloviansk whose croupiers took back lost money in cellophane bags by cab; the first beauty salon in Donetsk instead of the Soviet barbershop; and the first fashion shows with magicians.
WITH THEIR FEET ON THE ALTAR: THE WHITE BROTHERHOOD
Film By Yevhen Spirin And Oleksandr Popenko
This is the story of the "White Brotherhood" - the most notorious religious sect in the post-Soviet countries, its leaders Yuri Krivonogov, who renounced his doctrine as a result, and Maryna Tsvihun, known as Maria Devi Khristos, who was imprisoned, sought a political affiliation, supported Russia's aggression in Crimea and the war in Donbas, and is now engaged in "cosmic art". This film is about how in the early 1990s the existence of such a sect became possible and what changed after the arrest of the sect's followers.
Faster, Higher, Stronger in the 90s