People Who Came To Power

When the Russian troops occupied Ukraine’s Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, their activities were documented by CCTV cameras. The film is based on that footage, recorded at the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

During the Russian occupation of the Chornobyl Zone in early 2022, a local informant is clandestinely filming the Russian troops. We hear the workers of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station discuss their experiences during the Russian military takeover of their facility - an act of nuclear terror which threatened another global disaster at this site. Past and present catastrophic scenarios intertwine in this macabre episode of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The kaleidoscope of stories shines a light on Ukrainians bravely defending their land against the Russian invasion, where millions struggle for their right to exist. A compendium of short films, this is highlights the full tragedy that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It charts the course of the Russian progression across the country through the lives and communities of those affected by the wide-scale aggression, alongside those fighting for their land. The film details the force of the assault, but its primary focus lies with the strength of the communities that have had to endure unimaginable hardships but who remain resilient in the face of such oppression. It joins an increasing number of ground-level films documenting the reality of this modern tragedy. Initially, the film did not contain an indication of the directors and cinematography team, which was indicated as a team of authors of "KINODOPOMOHA".

An unfinished abstract film by Florian Yuriev that the author worked on in the 1970s and was thought to be lost. The materials were found, restored and edited after Yuriev's death by director Oleksiy Radynski, preserving the original idea and visual images of Yuriev.

Documentary film about sending off to the army, collected from the video archives of the Stanytsya Luganskaya Local History Museum.

90-year-old architect Florian Yuriev is facing the destruction of his magnum opus: an avant-garde concert hall set to be repurposed as a shopping mall. Florian confronts the powerful real estate developer behind this investment project, and uses his visionary ideas to capture an unlikely victory. This is an architectural documentary with infusions of science fiction and horror film.

Florian Yuriev is an architect, artist, violin maker, theoretician and poet. At the age of 90 he has to master another, completely new skill. In order to save his architectural project, Kyiv’s ‘Flying Saucer’, from turning into part of a shopping mall, Florian Yuriev launches a campaign against the arbitrary power of developers in the capital.

In the late 1980s, a team of Ukrainian filmmakers made several expeditions to the remote corners of Siberia. In 2022, during Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, previously unknown footage from these trips was discovered in Kyiv. This valuable find becomes the starting point for the film essay about Russian imperialism, environmental destruction and oppression of the indigenous population in Russian colonies.

Post-revolutionary Ukraine through a community of people who ‘try to build a new society’ in the cracks and pores of a collapsing social system. The film unfolds in central Kyiv, in a space that has been reclaimed from the city by forces of nature. As a result of a series of landslides, the area of Petrivska street has become untenable and was subsequently occupied by the outcasts and outsiders of all kinds. A secretive graffiti team, a group of tech geeks and an avant-garde gay theatre that fled the war in Luhansk all struggle to create a place where they could coexist outside the pressure of dysfunctional social structures.

The film analyses the relationship between violence, politics, religion and insurgency by exploring the edges of the Kyiv protest movement and exposing its uncanny underside.

This is an observational documentary focused on one of the biggest unfinished bridge projects in the world - Podilsky Bridge in the centre of Kyiv. Its construction started nearly 25 years ago, but was halted in the late 2000s due to lack of investment and overwhelming corruption. The locals have adapted the unfinished bridge to their own needs - from sports and leisure to risky parcour-style attempts at getting from one river bank to another. In the meantime, Kyiv’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko is trying to figure out a way to complete the unfortunate project - with a little help from German politicians...

Ukrainians prepare for the Russian invasion.

A three-year-long observation of Kyiv’s moving landscape, condensed into 10 minutes of screen time.