Ukrainian films will be a key feature of this year's Belfast Film Festival.
Ukrainian Film Month features some of the best Ukrainian films of the year, as well as internationally recognised classics of Ukrainian cinema.
Highlights include Ukraine's Oscar contender, Klondike - a hard hitting depiction of the traumatic realities of war. Directed by Maryna Er Gorbach it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, winning the World Cinema Dramatic Competition for directing.
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Set in 2014, it stars Oxana Cherkashyna as a pregnant woman living near the Ukrainian-Russian border during the Russo-Ukrainian War and the shooting of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
There will also be the British and Irish premiere of Luxembourg Luxembourg by director Antonio Lukich, which tells the story of twin brothers who are trying to cope with their own lives when their long-lost father suddenly appears.
This is Lukich’s second feature film, following My Thoughts Are Silent which won a special jury prize at Karlovy Vary in 2019.
The film Pamfir is the debut of Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy. It premiered this year at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and is a crime drama masking as a dark fairy tale.
The story, set in western Ukraine against the backdrop of the Ukrainian national festival, Malanka, follows retired smuggler Pamfir who returns to his home in Western Ukraine.
He is determined to earn an honest living to support his family, but his plans for a life without crime are compromised and Pamfir returns to the world of smuggling for one last job.
Classic films in the programme include Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors which is considered to be the most internationally heralded Ukrainian film in history.
David Codling, UK Ukraine Season Director at the British Council, said: “Ukraine’s film sector is a varied and distinctive one, and these films remind us that contemporary Ukrainian cinema is daring, challenging and unafraid.
Made in 1965, it tells an epic tale of life in the Carpathian mountains, where a young man falls in love with the daughter of the man who killed his father.
Meanwhile, Brief Encounters (1967), which was banned by Soviet censors for 20 years, is perhaps the best-known film from acclaimed filmmaker Kira Muratov.
This romantic drama follows the story of two women who meet and become close, unaware they are both in love with the same man.
Alongside marking Ukrainian Film Month, this year's Belfast Film Festival features a jam-packed festival showcasing a wealth of local talent, whilst also shining a spotlight on the best international films of the year, with particular focus on emerging filmmakers, the stars of the future.
There are 116 films screening over the next 10 days, from 32 countries around the world, making the festival both a celebration of Northern Ireland and a window out onto the world for their eternally curious and adventurous audience.
To find out more and view the programme, visit https://belfastfilmfestival.org/whats-on or follow the hashtag #UKUASeason on social media.
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