7.11.2024, 19:15

“Lotat” (Taru Mäkelä, Finland, 1995, 50′), Q&A with the director afterwards. Language: Finnish, English subtitles.

Documentary film about the participation in the Winter War and the Continuation War of “Lotta Svärd” – a women’s volunteer auxiliary paramilitary organization. The heroines of the film are five “lotts”.

8.11.2024, 17:30

“Invisible Battalion” (Alina Horlova, Svitlana Lishchynska, Iryna Tsylyk, Ukraine, 2017, 90′), Q&A after the screening. Language: Ukrainian, English subtitles.

The first documentary film about the contribution of Ukrainian military women to the fight against Russian aggression. It consists of the stories of six women in military service. The main characters differ from each other in life experience, age, military and civilian professions, but they are all united by the war. Through their stories, a picture of the position of women in the Ukrainian Armed Forces opens before the eyes after the Russian invasion in 2014, when women had to change the old post-Soviet legislation.

9.11.2024, 14:00

“Songs of Slow Burning Earth” (Olha Zhurba, Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, France, 2024, 95′), Q&A after the screening. Language: Ukrainian, Russian, English subtitles.

The world premiere of the film took place this September at the Venice International Film Festival. “Songs of the Slowly Burning Earth” are reflections on the topic of the normalization of war. The ragged chords of panic and terror of the first weeks of the Russian invasion slowly transform into a numb silence of acceptance of death and destruction. In the end, it becomes a tragic norm for

local population, and for the rest of the world – something secondary. Against the background of the (meta)physical landscape of a collective catastrophe, a new generation of Ukrainians seeks to imagine the future.

10.11.2024, 14:00

“The Rainbow” (Mark Donskoi, Ukrainian SSR, 1943, 93′), Q&A after the screening.

Language: Russian, Finnish and Swedish subtitles.

The film is one of the most famous films about World War II. It tells about the life of an ordinary Ukrainian Olena Kostiuk. At the height of the war, Olena is captured by the enemy and has to experience incredible torture, torment and the loss of a newborn child. The famous Ukrainian Nataliia Uzhvii starred in the film. The film received the main award of the Association of Film Critics of the United States. The director of “The Rainbows” is Odesa native Mark Donskoi, whose work was not recognized despite the success he achieved during his life in the Soviet Union. He was transferred from Moscow to Kyiv. In Ukraine, Donskoi created four cinematic masterpieces, including “The Rainbow”, “The Taras Family” (Unconquered) (1945), “Mother” (1955) ja “At a Great Cost” (1957).