Leopolis Night

Crocodile is a game for a big company. The host shows a word only with the gestures. The one, who guesses it, chooses the next one to lead the game. Anya comes up with a difficult word for Lisa. This New Year Eve turns into a test of their friendship.

In the wild steppes of southern Ukraine, a young nature researcher named Yura is looking for an endangered species of groundhog but instead witnesses a crime. Eager to expose the truth, Yura takes his photo evidence to the local newspaper's editorial office. However, he quickly realizes that nobody there cares about pursuing justice. While a big war is looming over the horizon, Yura's naive worldview is splintering in a storm of fake news, rigged political elections, and mysterious cult rituals. On his quest, the hero is about to find out who he really is-an endangered species of a good man or just a loser?

Despite the war, school life continues in Ukraine, with pupils and teachers striving to continue learning even under constant threat. The film is a mosaic of the everyday lives of teachers and students from different corners of Ukraine.

Hanging out with friends, smoking a lot, spinning bottles and kissing, making mistakes, playing, refusing to accept, dreaming with open eyes - life as a teenager can be overwhelmingly beautiful and difficult at the same time. In her debut, the Ukrainian director composes a deeply emotional and multi-layered portrait of a generation whilst seamlessly flowing between the fictional and the documental.

Ukraine, 1996. 5 months before the moratorium on capital punishment, two old friends, a police detective and a forensic psychiatrist, investigate a murder of their colleague. Long time ago, both of them were in love with the widow of the deceased. Immersed in the complicated case and long forgotten memories, they create a future where their children have to live, inheriting unrealized aspirations of their parents.

Lyuba works at a confectionery factory. Her son is in the war zone and there is no connection with him. Lyuba goes in search of his son in an unfamiliar territory.

Lyuba works at a confectionery factory. Her son is in the war zone and there is no connection with him. Lyuba goes in search of his son in an unfamiliar territory.

Valentina works in Lichtenstein. She lived in Kyiv until the age of 13. In 1996, during a hard transitive economic period in Ukraine, Valentina emigrated to Switzerland with her mother and stepfather. 20 years have passed.

The Vilnius Palace of Marriage, opened in 1974, is highly reminiscent of Soviet-era modernist architecture in Ukraine. Mariia’s dance represents her emerging womanhood in a space traditionally meant for the initiation ritual of two people. An episode of the anthology project “Dance + City”, which bridges contemporary dance and architecture across Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, France, and Ukraine. The film was screened both as an episode within the anthology and through independent festival and award distribution.

The fragments of observation after the window across the street and an attempt to change the space during self-isolation.

Based on Wolfgang Goethe's poem "Forest King". Farewell to children's dreams about the perfection of the world and the permanence of nature. The film has three main characters: the boy Oleksii and his parents, Andriy and Oleksandra. And someone Maxim, the king of the forest, the wind is the subject of secret admiration and fear of Oleksiy: "My dear, the king of the forest is talking to me: he promises gold, pearls and joy" - "Oh no, my baby, you didn't hear that: that wind, waking up, the leaves swayed."

The story of people through whose eyes Ukrainians and the world see the events of our time—photographers who document the war and its consequences. The project was filmed with state support. Among the film's protagonists are Stas Kozlyuk, Georgy Ivanchenko, Yefrem Lukatsky, Arseniy Gerasymenko, Danilo Pavlov, Nicoletta Stoyanova, Olga Kovaleva, Kateryna Radchenko, and Yevgen Dyaditsyn. Their work is often frightening in its truthfulness, and so it comes with a warning label for readers: "Sensitive content." The film's protagonists share their understanding of photography as a universal language that can tell the world the truth about war, and they talk about the ethical dilemmas they face in their work.

Scenes from Kyiv Maidan fixed between November 2013 and February 2014. A collective portrait of the people who came to the Maidan to protest against the dictatorship .Faceless crowd here has specific faces of those who fight for dignity.

At noon, in the shade of riverside trees — as if in the middle of life — you lose something. Yet love is as strong as the river. A man is going through abrupt changes in his life — both personal and caused by the war. He spends a day alone by the river, revisiting a forgotten hobby — fishing. A sense of love and acceptance fills him, but only for a brief moment — he must return to the war.

Each of us has written this essay at some point. It happens every September 1st, yet somehow it always catches you off guard. Do children from different parts of Ukraine feel life differently or, on the contrary, similarly? What do they have in common, and what sets them apart? We are used to hearing stories about «vacations by the sea», «bike rides», and «sports victories». But what will teenagers in modern Ukraine tell us? Will their lives look somehow different? Or is even the war unable to cancel their youth and passion for life, emotions, and adventures?

In November 2022, despite the war and power outages in Kyiv, the Docudays UA festival is taking place - live and offline, for the first time in two years. It was a special edition which the festival team called the State of Emergency, and it was accompanied by the news of the liberation of Kherson from Russian occupiers, daily air raid warnings, and dark Kyiv evenings. The three-day journey in the film is full of the fragile humor of the festival team and the eager eyes of the audience.