about the movie
Ukraїner. The Movie is a visual narration about the everyday life of the least known country of the European continent. The movie consists of six stories woven into a single canvas. Each of them shows a usual day taking place in Ukraine, the country created by unusual people. The main characters are not connected with each other, and the worlds they live in are completely different. Those differences are the glue that keeps this country together and unites it.
The village Bukatynka in Podillia despite its immense natural potential and ancient history could become another gradually dying-out village. However, more than 40 years ago a family of artists Oleksiy and Liudmyla Alioshkin had settled down here. Step by step they are turning the place into a museum and an environment that attracts people in search of history and art. You can read our longread “Bukatynka. Living Museum in Abandoned Houses”.
Having grown up in an artistic family, the daughter of the Alioshkin family persued the creative career. She garners attention to the ancient art of vytynanka (papercutting) by creating vytynanky for modern interiors, public institutions and book covers, revives the art and awareness about it. You can read more about modern vytynanky by Dariya Alioshkina in our story “Vytynanka: From Traditional Craft to Contemporary Interior Art”.
Motobol is a unique sport for Ukraine that got preserved only in a couple of countries worldwide. Volodymyr Danyliak is developing motoball in Kamianets-Podilskyi for almost 50 years. He works as a shuttle bus driver and after his workday, he takes part in the motoball games and coaches a young generation of players. Read more about Volodymyr in our story “Motoball. A Big Ball Near the Fortress”.
Viktor Sakara has been working as a keeper of the lighthouse on Shahany lagoon, near the village Prymorske for 20 years. Every day he wades across the channel to get to the lighthouse since there is no by the land option to reach the lighthouse from the village. During the cold season, he stays at the lighthouse around the clock. Learn more from our story “Shahany. Living at the World’s End”.
Oleksandr Syrota grew up in Prypiat. After the catastrophe at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the man was evacuated just like most of the locals. After a while, he returned home and began creating documentary projects and organizing customized guided tours to the exclusion zone as well as registering the renewal of Prypiat ecosystem and the return of the wildlife. You can learn more from our story “A Return to the Exclusion Zone”.
Natalia and Yaroslav Kishchuk from a Hutsul village Yavoriv make lizhnyky, blankets and comforters woven out of sheep wool used both for rites and everyday life. For the Kishchuk family making lizhnyks is a family craft so they teach their children the trade. Read our longread “Carpathian Lizhnyk — A Hutsul Invention”.
Anatoliy Skumin is among the few in Ukraine who is engaged in wild honey farming. This ancient craft of wild honey extraction from wooden log-hives was believed to be extinct until recent time. However, in Polissia it is preserved and revived. Read our story “Wild-honey Farmers of Polissia. People of the Forest”.
While a painter is covering the walls of an abandoned house with ornaments in a village in Podillia region, the wild honey farmers are climbing the trees to collect a fresh batch of honey in Polissia. At the same moment in Kamyanets Podilskyi, the shuttle bus driver is done with his workday and is putting on the uniform of motoball player. From the noise and roar of the engines, we dive into the quiet of Prymorske, where the lighthouse stands and its keeper is scanning the horizon. Meanwhile, the Kishchuk family in the Carpathians is weaving in the first woollen thread of the new lizhnyk and the next thing we see is the New Safe Confinement at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant where hundreds of people continue working on daily basis.
The main characters of the movie are from different regions of Ukraine. Through their personal stories, we can see the worlds they live in. They are unlike but Ukraine comprises of differences. The movie represents a weekday of the whole country, a documentary narration that tells the story of the unknown to broad audience jobs and contradictions in each characters’ lives appealing to the wide circle of the audience not just in Ukraine but abroad as well.
The premiere of «Ukraїner. The Movie»
On the 1st of November at 7 pm the premiere of the Ukraїner. The Movie took place simultaneously in 60 towns and 7 countries. These movie shows were organized by activists and interested organizations both in small environments and big movie theatres.
