50 Ukrainian docs you must watch to understand Ukraine
Choose 50 films made by Ukrainian filmmakers to better understand Europe's largest country torn by the war but invincible, and appreciate the importance of standing with Ukraine.
Unfortunately, many prominent Ukrainian documentaries are not listed on IMDb, particularly those made in Soviet times (some of them were forbidden and many ignored and even by now they have not been entered here). For example, "Kermanychi" (dir. Ihor Grabovskyi, 1965), "Osvidchennia v kokhanni" (dir. Rollan Serhiyenko, 1966), "Sonata pro khudozhnyka" (dir. Viktor Shkurin, 1966) or a film trilogy by Arkadiy Mikulsky about Oleh Olzhych "Ya kamin iz Bozhoyi praschi...". The body of documentaries about Ukrainian history (e.g. a must see 108 episodes series "Unknown Ukraine. Essays of our History") also missing here.
Foreign films unless co/produced by Ukrainians are not included.
Unfortunately, many prominent Ukrainian documentaries are not listed on IMDb, particularly those made in Soviet times (some of them were forbidden and many ignored and even by now they have not been entered here). For example, "Kermanychi" (dir. Ihor Grabovskyi, 1965), "Osvidchennia v kokhanni" (dir. Rollan Serhiyenko, 1966), "Sonata pro khudozhnyka" (dir. Viktor Shkurin, 1966) or a film trilogy by Arkadiy Mikulsky about Oleh Olzhych "Ya kamin iz Bozhoyi praschi...". The body of documentaries about Ukrainian history (e.g. a must see 108 episodes series "Unknown Ukraine. Essays of our History") also missing here.
Foreign films unless co/produced by Ukrainians are not included.
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- StarsVolodymyr ZelenskyyValerii Fedorovych ZaluzhnyiVitali Klitschko'Ukraine on Fire 2' is one-minute docu-series about the Russia's war on Ukraine.
- DirectorYuri IlyenkoStarsLyudmila EfimenkoLes SerdyukIvan IvanovThe film is a poetic adaptation of a series of stories (oral and written) about Princess Olga of Kievan Rus at the start of the 11th century.
- DirectorDziga VertovStarsMikhail KaufmanElizaveta SvilovaA man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention.
- DirectorDziga VertovHow the miners of the Don coal basin (one of the industrial regions of Ukraine) were striving to fulfill in four years their part of the Five Year Plan.
- DirectorsYakov AvdeyenkoYuliya SolntsevaAleksandr DovzhenkoStarsLeonid KhmaraOleksiy FyodorovHermann GöringDepicts the Battle of Kharkov. The film incorporates German footage of the invasion of Ukraine, which was later captured by the Soviets.
- DirectorFeliks SobolevStarsB. DrozhinVladimir RaykovIgor ShelushkovHas the capacity of the human brain already been exhausted due to information overload? Sobolev posed this question at the end of the 1960s after a hidden camera recorded the results of a university entrance exam. The director, renowned for his belief in the endless possibilities of humanity, created a participatory documentary in which he filmed experiments with people with phenomenal abilities under the guidance of professors from the Academy of Sciences. Scientific analysis of the nature of hypnosis, telepathy, and dermo-optical perception reveals potential avenues to expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.
- DirectorFeliks SobolevA journalistic story inspired by Volodymyr Vernadsky about the genesis of life in the universe - from the physical elements of the primordial broth to the civilization of intelligent man.
- DirectorRollan SergienkoDocumentary about the famous Ukrainian philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda, which was banned by Soviet censorship.
- DirectorVladimir ShevchenkoThe first film made following the nuclear meltdown accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, on the 26 April 1986, focuses on the immediate aftermath of the disaster and the cleanup effort.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsLesya GongadzeGeorgiy GongadzeLubomyr HusarMost intimate, heartbreaking and inspiring confessions by and about Lesya Gongadze's life and her son's disappearance that prompted a revolution.
- DirectorEvgeny AfineevskyStarsHis Beatitude SviatoslavSaid IsmagilovBishop AgapitA documentary on the unrest in Ukraine during 2013 and 2014, as student demonstrations supporting European integration grew into a violent revolution calling for the resignation of President Viktor F. Yanukovich.
- DirectorKostiantyn KliatskinStarsYuriy ChmelykVolodymyr DubovyiMykola LytvynenkoA story of the officers, soldiers and seamen who have not betrayed their oath of loyalty to the people of Ukraine during the takeover of Crimea. This is a film about a military honor, in the midst of undeclared war.
- DirectorsLeonid KanterIvan YasniyStarsBohemaHatyloThis is a story of a new Ukrainian army and new Ukrainian society being born. After Maidan revolution Ukrainian volunteer warriors defend Donetsk Airport from pro-Russian separatists and Russian militaries.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsIrynaOleksiy TyschykOleksandr TyschykA Ukraine's epic story about two families torn by war.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsBohdan YarychevskyYuriy YatsenkoPyotr ZaikinTraveling to a neighbouring country, a remarkable young man becomes a political prisoner: his body and soul are put to test, manifesting the spirit of his nation.
- DirectorAlina GorlovaStarOksana YakubovaWhat is left backstage of the heroic videos of our warriors in Ukraine? What do they have to face, one on one, in peaceful life, and where does the war stop?
- DirectorsAlina GorlovaSvitlana LishchynskaIryna TsilykStarsOlena BilozerskaYulia MatvienkoYulia PaievskaDespite the stereotypes, the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine involves Ukrainian women too. The "Invisible Battalion" will show the world the role of women in the war.
- DirectorsMark Jonathan HarrisOles SaninBREAKING POINT: The War for Democracy in Ukraine looks at people transformed by a democratic revolution, who give up their normal lives to fight a Russian invasion, in a war which has killed 10,000 and displaced 1.9 million Ukrainians.
- DirectorSergei MaslobojshchikovThe collective portrait of the rank-and-file creators of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity of 2013-2014 and their individual opponents consists of many interviews with supporters and opponents of the Maidan, with the help of which modern history is impartially recorded. Sincere stories of completely different people on both sides of the barricades, different opinions, goals and hopes.
- DirectorsLeonid KanterIvan YasniyStarsOrest SlipakVasyl SlipakThe film is the remarkable and tragic story of Wassyl Slipak; Ukrainian opera singer whose unique voice and talent brought him world recognition and death on the war.
- DirectorIryna TsilykStarsGanna GladkaMyroslava TrofymchukAnastasiia TrofymchukTo cope with the daily trauma of living in a war-zone, Anna and her children are making a film together about their life in the most surreal surroundings.
- DirectorRoman LiubyiPersonal videos from the phones, camcorders, cameras and GoPros of Ukrainian soldiers are woven into a surreal journey to the front line of the war with Russia. The film shows a bizarre world whose laws are quite different from what we are used to. The behavior is different, the relationships unfold differently and the humour takes on different notes. The heroes wake up and fall asleep, rejoice and cry, always feeling that the recording may end at any moment.
- DirectorYegor TroyanovskyThe film investigates the kidnapping and alleged murder of a young Ukrainian soldier in the Donbas region in 2014. His father, an elderly fisherman from the south of Ukraine, follows the trail of his capturers. Traveling from the calm Azov coastline to industrial conglomerates, and then from the furious mining region to the sleepless capital, the father tries to find witnesses of the young soldier's last hours and minutes, as well as those who could see him dead or alive. When the testimonies are inconsistent, when the lawyers don't show up in courts, when you take one step forward and two steps back, all that remains to the father is to take the justice into his own hands.
- DirectorVyacheslav BihunStarsOleksandr MerezhkoOleksandr BatanovVyacheslav BihunA motivational drama about the first candidate for the newly formed Anti-Corruption Court who returns to Ukraine, known as the most corrupt continental state in Europe, to probe himself and the system by participating in the contest.
