Directors headline fourth annual Cambridge Festival of Ukrainian film

New films by a number of Ukraine’s best directors will be shown at the Fourth Annual Cambridge Festival of Ukrainian Film today (Friday 11 November) and tomorow at Cambridge Arts Picturehouse

The popular Festival, hosted by the Ukrainian Studies programme at the University of Cambridge, features the best of contemporary Ukrainian cinema as well as international documentary features about Ukraine. It has sold out every year.

On Friday, 11 November, filmmakers Volodymyr Tykhyi and Maryna Vroda will be present in Cambridge to discuss their work with the audience, who come from all over England to attend the event. Tykhyi will screen short films from the collaborative project ‘Ukraino, Goodbye’, a follow-up to the sensational ‘Mudaky: Arabesky’. Vroda will screen a number of her short films, including ‘Cross’, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

“‘We are very honoured and excited to have Volodymyr Tykhyi and Maryna Vroda sharing their extraordinary work with us in England,” said Rory Finnin, Director of the Ukrainian Studies programme at Cambridge. “They are not afraid to push the boundaries of their art or to confront poignant and pressing social issues in their films. Ukrainian cinema is in the midst of a renaissance, and we are very proud to be able to bring it to England.”

The Friday evening event is now sold out.

On Saturday, 12 November, Olha Onyshko and Sarah Farhat will present their new documentary film ‘Three Stories of Galicia’, which tells the powerful, uplifting story of a Jewish family, a Ukrainian woman, and a Polish priest who chose fellowship over fear during the Nazi and Stalinist eras.

In conjunction with the Fourth Annual Film Festival, Cambridge Ukrainian Studies is also hosting the first international symposium devoted to the cinema of Ihor Savchenko (1906-1950), whose films are largely unknown in the West. Among Savchenko’s students were some of the most celebrated filmmakers of the post-Stalin era: Marlen Khutsiev, Sergei Parajanov, Aleksandr Alov and Vladimir Naumov.

Tickets are still available from the Arts Picturehouse for the Saturday event at 2pm.

It has been a busy year for the programme. This autumn, Cambridge Ukrainian Studies is also collaborating with the Royal Court Theatre and the British Council on the translation of a project involving Ukrainian and Georgian playwrights.

Cambridge Ukrainian Studies offers a number of courses in Ukrainian language, literature and culture and hosts a regular series of public lectures, exhibitions, and literary readings to promote and contribute to the study of Ukraine in the United Kingdom and beyond.

The programme was launched in 2008 and made permanent in 2010 thanks to the support of Mr Dmytry Firtash, a prominent Ukrainian businessman.