National Competition Program 2023

ONE ALOE, ONE FICUS, ONE AVOCADO AND SIX DRACAENAS 8 min. Marta Smerechynska Ukraine, France 2022

There is a washing machine wrapped in tape, meter-long indoor plants with roots, and children’s drawings among the hundreds of boxes on which addresses of Ukrainian cities are written.
This place resembles a warehouse of lost things.

IN PARIS NO ONE THINKS ABOUT TOMORROW 14 min. Andrii Kokura Ukraine 2023

Alissa is a Ukrainian model who has taken refuge in Paris. Having just lost someone close to her, she finally gets her first contract for a fashion show. Traumatized by war and exile, Alissa seems indifferent to everything around her, and now seeks only one thing: harmony.

EXPLOSIONS NEAR THE MUSEUM 14 min. Roman Khimei, Yarema Malashchuk Ukraine 2023

The filmmakers captured images and sound in the city of Kherson itself, just recently liberated, and inside the Museum, situated 2 km from occupied territory and 6 km from the positions of Russian troops. This Museum of Regional History housed one of Southern Ukraine’s largest and oldest collections of antiquities, with over 173.000 objects spanning seven thousand years, from Scythian gold to World War II weaponry. But between 24 and 26 October 2022, two weeks before Kherson was liberated by the Ukrainians, the museum was looted by Russian occupational forces, in a strategic theft of centuries of Ukrainian history.

VOICE MESSAGES FROM BAKHMUT 15 min. Ihor Babaiev Ukraine 2023

Bakhmut, Donetsk region, 2022. A story about an attempt to restore intimacy at a distance of the war told via the voice messages of a foreign correspondent in a front-line city.

GOLDEN LEGGINS 20 min. Arkadii Nepytaliuk Ukraine 2022

August 19, 1991. USSR. Moscow is filled with rallies, barricades and tanks. But a summer school camp on the South is living its own life.

DESTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA 15 min. Yurii Boiko Ukraine 2023

Longtime friends meet again and decide to spend an evening together, reflecting on old events and comprehending recent ones.

THE ROAD 7 min. Yana Petrykova Ukraine 2022

“The Road” is the story of a young family trying to leave the occupied territory. At one of the checkpoints, armed Russian soldiers stop the car and take the man out for questioning. His wife and daughter are left waiting in the car.

MORROW 6 min. Vladyslav Kalenskyy Ukraine 2023

Morning in Ukraine. A russian missile hits an apartment building. Terrible destruction that leads to death. But Death decides to intervene in the situation, hesitating to take the life that was claimed by a russian missile.

STORKS ALWAYS COME HOME 29 min. Halyna Koziutynska Ukraine 2023

Gala and Viktor are searching for their Heaven on earth. Even during the war. That’s why they buy an abandoned house in the Carpathian Mountains and start repairing it. It’s a place of peace and calmness, where they can grow their own food, be silent, be defenseless, and drink coffee overlooking the mountains and a stork’s nest. But winter comes, the apple tree in the yard freezes, and the War reaches Heaven.

MARIUPOL. A HUNDRED NIGHTS 8 min. Sofiia Melnyk Ukraine 2023

The animated short film “Mariupol. A Hundred Nights” tells the story of a little girl who wakes up from explosions and tries to survive in a burning city in the first days of the russian full-scale invasion. To escape, she has to go through the destroyed streets to meet the unknown and trust in destiny. Later, as an elderly woman, she will return to Ukrainian Mariupol to remember everything.

UNDER THE WING OF A NIGHT 19 min. Lesia Diak Ukraine 2023

Olesia, an 11-year-old teen from Ukraine, is growing up under the wing of her mother, away from home. Dance and touch are her ways to release anger and adjust to the reality of Brussels. Every evening Olesia waits for dad’s call from Ukraine. The family’s extreme closeness nurtures the strength of this young girl whose fragility is exposed to constant war-related anxiety after the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

WAKING UP IN SILENCE 17 min. Mila Zhluktenko, Daniel Asadi Faezi Ukraine 2023

Ukrainian children are confronted with their past as they explore their new home in Germany: a former Wehrmacht military barracks.

SAY “CZEŚĆ” 17 min. Nata Onysh, Veronika Shuster Ukraine 2023

Due to the war with Russia, 12-year-old Misha is uprooted from his home city of Kyiv and forced to flee to a small Polish town. Struggling to adjust to his new reality and desperate to hold on to the memories of his past life, Misha clings to his phone as a lifeline to his friends and the adventures they left behind.

THREE WINDOWS ON THE SOUTH WEST 8 min. Mariia Ponomarova Ukraine 2023

Three windows on south west and a balcony on south east are what you can see of Mariia’s apartment on the facade. In three conversations, Mariia reflects on her experiences related to the place of her upbringing in Kyiv and attempts to reclaim the image of her home back.

IT’S A DATE 6 min. Nadia Parfan Ukraine 2023

This is a story about the capital of the country in which a full-scale war is taking place, but life in all its manifestations does not stop. The film itself looks like a high-speed drive through Kyiv at dawn, shot in one shot. In the finale, when the car stops, we see a figure of a female driver in camouflage for the first time. She gets out and hugs a woman in civilian clothes. It’s a date.

CHORNOBYL 22 20 min. Oleksiy Radynski Ukraine 2023

During the Russian occupation of the Chornobyl Zone in early 2022, a local informant is clandestinely filming the Russian troops. The workers of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station discuss their experiences during the Russian military takeover of their facility.

AS IT WAS 15 min. Damian Kocur, Anastasia Solonevych Ukraine Poland 2023

Lera has been living in Berlin for almost a year since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. One day she decides to go back to Kyiv. On her way, she finds out that her family is not in Kyiv and will arrive only the next day. She meets her friend Kyrylo, with whom she spends the day.

HOW I CELEBRATED THE DAY OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IN KHERSON 9 min. Kateryna Krokha Ukraine 2023

A portrait of Kherson during the flooding after russian invaders blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station.
Through a personal story of being there.

TUTTI 32 min. Alla Savytska Ukraine 2023

They all are between 12 and 17.
They all had a home..friends..childhood..music.
Until 4 am on February 24, 2022.
At that moment, everything crumbles in their lives.
Except of music.