Anna Palenchuk

Throughout time, Eastern Ukraine (such as Donbas) has been referred to as a 'Russian world', but this is indeed not the case. The history of Donbas was re-written during the Soviet era. Although the Soviet Union edited out and withheld all references to the European background of this region from history books in schools and universities. There were, in fact, numerous French, Belgian, German, British, Polish, Swiss, Dutch, and even American settlements and more than 100 wide-scale enterprises in the region. Therefore, this film reveals the pro-European industrialization of Ukrainian Donbas at the turn of the 19th century. It aims to emphasize the European roots of Ukraine long before the official integration process of Ukraine into the EU in 2022.

'Eurokryvbas' explores the rise of Ukrainian cities like Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and Kamianske, shaped by British, Belgian, Polish, German, and French investors during the 19th-20th centuries. Soviet policy erased their European origins. Today, experts and local activists are working to preserve this heritage amid Russia's ongoing war for these lands.

The city of Mariupolis is by the Azov sea. It is also on the river Kalmius. Most of the city’s residents, half a million according to the last census, are working for the steel factory and do fishing, for leisure or food, in between shifts. The orthodox church towers above the city and its newly build bronze domes are sitting next to it, waiting to be donned. A tent near by is sheltering a crying icon, which receives a steady flow of visitors.

When Ruslana floods her Munich flat, Vladan, a former Boxer from Serbia, comes to her rescue. It is the night when Ruslana's son Bogdan should finally come from Kyiv. He rather falls in love with the spoiled pop-starlet Maria, for whom he is working. Both, however, are depending on Maria's rich patron Jora. The same night in Belgrade Vladan's son Zoran meets Jelena. But she intends to leave her homeland the next day, forever. Three cities. Three Love-Stories. One night in Europe.

Askania-Nova is the largest steppe wildlife sanctuary in Europe. It is located in south part of Ukraine, not far from Crimea peninsula. In order to underline this unique beauty we created a documentary musical film about life of animals and people in wildlife sanctuary of Askania-Nova. The movie reveals stories of a three protagonists, whose destinies were entangled because of wildlife sanctuary.

What stands behind the Black Square, painted in 1915 by the obsessive artist Kazymyr Malevych? For his competitors, a fraud, for the Soviet regime, a secret code, for one woman, a love letter, for the people of Ukraine – a prophecy…

Vitaly Mansky’s intimate and insightful new documentary finds him crisscrossing Ukraine in the wake of the Maidan uprising, which has left his relatives scattered on both sides of a highly charged and dizzyingly complex political situation.

When Zhorik moves to Kyiv, he has high hopes to improve his life. But then he encounters the mundane struggles, bureaucracy, and corruption of Ukrainian reality.