Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOi6c_iJ8qg

A four-year-long project documenting three generations of Ukrainian Carpathian shepherds in their struggle to keep the age-old tradition alive in the face of contemporary changes. 

The film follows three different generations living in the Ukrainian Carpathians: Ivan is an 82-year-old retired shepherd who lives a lonely life, having recently buried his wife. At the same time, nine-year-old Ivanko is just beginning his life and studying at boarding school, while 39-year-old Vasyl is raising young lambs at his farm. But when spring comes all three men will head for the mountains following the shepherd’s calling that is becoming ever more difficult to sustain in the contemporary world. 

The title - “Living Fire” - is the name that highland shepherds give to their central campfire—a protective fire whose flame must remain lit for the entire four-month herding season. The age-old ritual of lighting the “living fire” was maintained in the Hutsul region until the middle of the 20th century.

It is a film about pitiless daily labour that knows no weekends, a harmonious world that was lost in the search for comfort, and the childhood that is left behind when one takes on the role of an adult…

Director: Ostap Kostyuk

Genre: Documentary 

Country: Ukraine, 2014

Run Time: 77min

Language: Ukrainian (English subtitles)

Website: zhyvavatra.com.ua

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-dmGlSFBbs

The story of a poor family in Ukraine, living in the Carpathian mountains near the Romanian border, during the Second World War. This epic, which won the grand prize at the Moscow Film Festival in 1971, chronicles a family's struggle for survival in an area that was claimed as part of Romania, Poland and Ukraine, all within a short span of time. The family is very poor, and has a great many children. When World War II comes, various family members choose different masters; some even choose to work for the Soviets. War, struggle, marriages, births, deaths - all these events punctuate the story of this large family.

Director: Yuri Ilyenko

Genre: Drama

Country: Ukraine, 1971

Run Time: 99 min

Language: Ukrainian (English subtitles)

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWtADNTy5ZM

A young trumpeter Mykola Shevchenko plays in a pop brass band. He composes his own music that attracts the attention of world famous musician Eugene Gaisin. It is a story of rivalry between two children's orchestras and, just the same as in the adult world, there is love, intrigue, jealousy and, of course, a happy ending!

Director: Anatoliy Mateshko

Genre: Family musical comedy

Country: Ukraine, 2014

Run Time: 85min

Language: Ukrainian (English subtitles)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkjc6d2kiXI

Ukraine, 1930s.  American  engineer  Michael  Shamrock  (Jeff  Burrell)  arrives  in  Kharkiv  with  his ten-year old son, Peter (Anton Greene) to help "build socialism". He falls in love with an actress Olga   (Jamala)   who   has  another   admirer,   Communist   Commissar   Vladimir.   Under   tragic circumstances, the American is killed and his son is saved from his pursuers by a blind "Kobzar' (Stanislav Boklan).  With  no  other  chance  to  survive  in  a foreign  land,  the  boy  becomes  his guide.  Their  journey,  full  of  dangerous  adventures,  unfolds against  the  backdrop of  one  of the  most  dramatic  pages  of  Ukrainian  history  and  human  destruction.  The film, about love, loyalty, betrayal and infamy is based on true events.

Director: Oles Sanin

Genre: historical drama

Country: Ukraine 2014

Run Time: 122 min

Languages: Ukrainian, English, Russian (English subtitles)

Website: http://povodyr.com

This screening is part of the Days of Ukrainian Cinema in London. LINK TO FULL PROGRAMME

Away (Viddalik)

Director: Kateryna Gornostai

Genre: Fiction

Country: Ukraine, 2015Run Time: 11 min

Language: Ukrainian (English subtitles)

"We will be together until death do us apart," this is the answer to the question, "Till when?". How about another question, “How will we be?”

When the romance is over, it is time to decide "how.” And “how long," too.  

A young couple tries to figure these things out.

Winner of the National Competition at the 45th IFF ‘Molodist’, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Big Man

Director: Tetyana Kabaieva

Genre: Animation

Country: Ukraine, 2015

Run Time: 4 min

The Big Man once was living,

A big soul the Man was keeping...

I Bought a Bicycle

Director: Mykyta Lyskov

Genre: Animation

Country: Ukraine, 2015

Run Time: 2’40 min

Once upon a time I bought a bicycle…

Six Floors

Director: Oleksandr Navrotsky

Genre: Documentary, black and white

Country: Ukraine, 2015

Run Time: 13 min

A romantic documentary about the everyday life of people living in one big seemingly unattractive building. The film is about the soul, joy, anxiety, and sadness. It is also about search for goodness and beauty, the need to believe, love, and hope.

Trash

Director: Tetyana Symon

Genre: Fiction

Country: Ukraine, 2015

Run Time: 16 min

A brother and sister come to clean up the trailer inherited from their father. They have a significant difference in age and usually they rarely see each other. While cleaning, the taboo topics are brought up and a conflict unfolds.

Once Upon a Mine

Director: Vofka Solovéy

Genre: Fiction

Country: Ukraine, 2015

Run Time: 31 min

Young and misunderstood artist Hena leaves his home in the war-torn Donbas region. Running away to catch a bus he steps on a landmine and now cannot raise his foot …

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMYs4wcpC_M

When the Soviet troops free Ivan from prison, he is charged with high treason and faces a long sentence in a Siberian camp. Not wanting to die behind barbed wire or wait for an amnesty, Ivan escapes.
Firecrosser is a story of a Ukrainian-born Soviet pilot, who goes through fascist captivity during the Second World War, becomes a GULAG prisoner and then an Indian chief in Canada. 

Director: Mykhailo Illienko
Genre: Drama

Country: Ukraine, 2011
Run Time: 110min

Language: Ukrainian (English subtitles)