ALAIN RESNAIS CENTENARY (1922-2014) 46 HOMAGE TO UKRAINIAN CINEMA

HOMAGE TO UKRAINIANCINEMA

A survey of the strength of underappreciated national cinema and in recognition of the ongoing conflict and to honour the Ukrainian people as well as the country’s rich culture through the art of film. Some of them are a tough watch, but that only reflects the nation’s history. We present nine films from the silent classics of ‘Earth’ to recent releases like ‘Donbass’ and ‘Reflection’.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION BYMICHAEL BROOKE

Although Ukrainian cinema dates from as early as 1896, much of its history is intertwined with that of the Soviet Union, which (especially during the Stalin era) discouraged anything too overtly nationalistic. Despite this, several distinctively Ukrainian masterpieces were made a few years either side of 1930, and a post-Stalin national reflowering in the 1960s. The Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 presented Ukrainian filmmakers with new creative freedoms but also considerable challenges, not least financial and logistical one. However, a distinctively independent Ukrainian cinema has nonetheless emerged, including the internationally acclaimed output of Sergei Loznitsa and striking individual works such as the sign-language ‘The Tribe’ (2014), the road movie ‘My Thoughts Are Silent’ (2019) and the post-apocalyptic ‘Atlantis’ (2019) – as well as several popular comedies starring the future Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose widely recognised mastery of the media was honed during his previous career. M.B.

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Wed 17 Aug 13:00 – Studio

FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS: THEHISTORYOFUKRAINIANCINEMA

An illustrated talk by Michael Brooke Compared with Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Romanian cinema, Ukrainian cinema is far less familiar as a separate cultural entity, a legacy derived from it being collectively regarded as “Soviet cinema” for much of its lifespan. However, there have been plenty of Ukrainian film masterpieces, from Dziga Vertov’s ‘The Man with the Movie Camera’ and Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s ‘Earth’ at the close of the silent era, via the ground-breaking work of Sergei Parajanov and Kira Muratova, to the endlessly inventive fiction and documentary projects of Sergei Loznitsa (‘Donbass’) today. In this extensively illustrated talk, Eastern European film expert Michael Brooke delves into this fascinating, still underappreciated national cinema. Michael is a blu-ray producer and regular contributor to ‘Sight & Sound’ and the ‘Journal of Film Preservation’, specialising in East European Cinema. 100M

Tue 16 Aug 20:30 – Studio Wed 17 Aug 18:30 – Pic Palace

THE TRIBE

A deaf boy joins a boarding school for similar children. All the actors are deaf, and the film makes no use of any vocal language nor even subtitles, only sign language throughout. This may quite well be a first for a feature film of fiction… and it works! ‘The Tribe’ is one of the most unsettling films of the year. It is set at a boarding school for the deaf in Kiev, where anarchy prevails. There are no words, subtitles, or even a score. The hearing viewer is left to interpret the violent chaos without auditory clues, presenting a unique challenge in understanding the narrative and the motivations of the characters. We are left to confusedly construe scenarios by their actions, and as such, are provided some insight into the helpless isolation of the deaf. As a film, ‘The Tribe’ may be interpreted in various ways: as a political allegory for the Ukraine, as a discourse on communication through violence, or as an allegory to the impotence experienced by minority groups. Regardless, there are scenes that are shockingly disturbing, and the direction is unflinching. An extraordinary film. (No subtitles) UKRAINE 2014 MYROSLAV SLABOSHPYTSKYI 125M Our thanks to Alpha Violet, Paris for this screening.

Wed 17 Aug 10:00 – Auditorium

REFLECTION

Ukrainian surgeon Serhiy is captured by the Russian military forces in the conflict zone in Eastern Ukraine and while in captivity, he is exposed to horrifying scenes of humiliation, violence and indifference towards human life. After his release, he returns to his comfortable middle-class apartment and tries to find a purpose in life by rebuilding his relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. He learns how to be a human being again, how to be a father and help his daughter, who needs his love and support. At the start of the Donbas war in 2014, Valentyn Vasyanovych’s fifth feature chimes horribly with the current mood, grim and exacting as it is compared with previous, more ironic films about the conflict such as Sergei Loznitza’s ‘Donbass’ (screening Tue 23 Aug). Shot in mostly long takes with minimum camera movement, this is an intense experience with scenes of violence which is not for the squeamish. This enigmatic war drama is brutal in its depiction of conflict but also elusively redemptive. A shaken, horrifying outcry for Ukraine – and statement of hope which premiered at Venice 2021. UKRAINE 2021 VALENTYN VASYANOVYCH 125M NB. Following this film Michael Brooke will be giving an Illustrated talk on the history of Ukrainian Cinema on Wed 17 Aug 13:00 Our thanks to Alpha Violet, Paris for this screening.

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SPECIAL EVENT

Thu 18 Aug 21:15 – Guildhall, Priory Park Tickets £12

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Fri 19 Aug 18:30 – Studio Silent film with piano accompaniment in the Guildhall, Priory Park. This poetic silent drama is set in the peaceful countryside, as Vassily opposes the rich kulaks over the coming of collective farming. Dovzhenko’s “film poem” style brings to life the collective experience of life for the Ukrainian workers, examining natural cycles through his epic montage. He explores life, death, violence, sex, and other issues as they relate to the collective farms. This is Dovzhenko’s most accessible film but, perhaps for these same reasons, most misunderstood. An idealistic vision of the possibilities of Communism made just before Stalinism set in and the Kulack class was liquidated, ‘Earth’ was viewed negatively by many Soviets because of its exploration of death and other dark issues that come with revolution. In 1958 a Brussels’ film jury would vote ‘Earth’ as one of the great films of all time. It marks a threshold in Dovzhenko’s career emblematic of a turning point in the Ukrainian cultural and political avant-garde – the end of one period and transition to another. USSR 1930 ALEKSANDR DOVZHENKO 75M This classic silent movie will be presented with live piano accompaniment by the brilliant virtuosic Stephen Horne.

OLGA

A 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast exiled in Switzerland is working to secure a place at the country’s National Sports Centre. When the Euromaidan revolt breaks out in the country, anxieties rise as her family gets involved. Olga (Anastasiia Budiashkina) leaves her homeland for Switzerland during the 2014 Maidan revolution to compete for the Swiss team during the European championships. Her widowed mother was able to get her out to safety because Olga’s dad was Swiss, and she herself is being threatened by the state for her work as an investigative journalist uncovering corruption during the pro-Russian presidency. Olga is lonely, tired, scared, reflexively suspicious of her Swiss hosts – but also a superb competitor. But as the tough training programme continues and Olga’s relationship with her sullen French and Italian-speaking teammates gets complicated, the news comes through of how Ukraine (and her mother) is under brutal assault. Olga is, in her troubled way, emblematic of Ukraine’s yearning for a new European identity. The film speaks to the new agony of banishment now being felt by millions of Ukrainians. (Subtitles) UKRAINE/SWITZERLAND/FRANCE 2021 ELIE GRAPPE 85M Our thanks to 606 Distribution for this screening.

Sat 20 Aug 18:30 – Studio

Sun 21 Aug 18:30 – Studio

MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

In this experimental documentary, a man travels around a city with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling invention. Vertov’ dazzling classic and playful silent film is a documentary of a day in the life in the Ukraine (locations in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa). Starting with a look around the city before things start to happen, it then moves through the day, often coming back to the same site or individual. A film that broke away from the theatrical mindset that all films of that era followed, Vertov wanted to show how all aspects of society are intertwined. This propaganda film is helped by a wonderful modern music score that is based on the director’s notes. USSR 1929 DZIGA VERTOV 78M

HOMEWARD

Evge Writer-director Nariman Aliev reckons with generational schism and the intricacies of Ukraine’s historical-political context via a journey through sparse and beautiful landscape. Having lost the elder son on the war, Mustafa has to transfer his dead body to the homeland – Crimea. During this long and challenging trip from Kyiv, Mustafa tries to solve innumerable problems and find a common language with his younger son. On the way back home, the youngster becomes a man, finds his inner core and understands who he is. Having lost the one they both loved, the father and the son grow genuinely close to each other. (Subtitles) UKRAINE 2019 NARIMAN ALIEV 97M

Mon 22 Aug 10:30 – Auditorium

ATLANTIS

Set in 2025, a soldier befriends a young volunteer hoping to restore peaceful energy to a war-torn society. One year after “the war” ended. As gruff, haunted Sergiy (Andriy Rymaruk) grubs a living delivering water in the ruined eastern Ukrainian countryside, it is clear that the conflict polluted and ravaged the landscape almost as much as it did thePTSD-ridden psyches of its combatants. Whoever won, everyonelost. Whether the future it imagines turns out to be a cautionary tale or a soberingly accurate prophecy, ‘Atlantis’ is a powerful, essential lament for the humanity and the harmony with nature that are the first casualties buried in the shallow graves ofwar. (Subtitles) UKRAINE 2019 VALENTYN VASYANOVYCH 125M Our thanks to Best Friend Forever Sales, Brussels for this screening.

Booking Ref

Mon 22 Aug 18:30 – Pic Palace Fri 26 Aug 10:30 – Studio

Booking Ref In eastern Ukraine, society begins to degrade as the effects of propaganda and manipulation begin to surface in this posttruth era. Seamlessly divided into 13 segments, ‘Donbass’ recounts the corrosive nature of the conflict pitting Ukrainian nationalists against supporters of Russia’s proxy Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine. No one comes out clean, but how could they, when years of manipulation have malignantly stirred animosities on both sides? The time period is 2014-15, although it is unlikely much has changed in a region lacking basic infrastructure and shredded by acrimony. Notwithstanding the film’s unmistakable thematic cohesion, its piecemeal structure means that viewers will feel battered with each successive scene, knowing full well that the storyline to come will lead to yet another episode of increased intensity. Corruption and humiliation are the guiding forces of ‘Donbass,’ resulting in a scathing portrait of a society where human interaction has descended to a level of barbarity more in keeping with late antiquity than the so-called contemporary civilized world. (Subtitles) UKRAINE 2018 SERGEI LOZNITSA 110M

Thu 25 Aug 18:15 – Studio

BITTER HARVEST

Set between the two World Wars and based on true historical events, Bitter Harvest conveys the untold story of the Holodomor, the genocidal famine engineered by the tyrant Joseph Stalin. The film displays a powerful tale of love, honour, rebellion and survival at a time when Ukraine was forced to adjust to the horrifying territorial ambitions of the burgeoning Soviet Union. With an exceptional cast of established and rising stars, including Max Irons and Terence Stamp, the film epically recreates one of the most dramatic and dangerous episodes in the history of 20th Century Europe. UKRAINE 2017 GEORGE MENDUDELUK 103M

Tue 23 Aug 10:15 – Studio Fri 26 Aug 18:00 – Studio

MR. JONES

Based on real events, this dramatic thriller chronicles a Welsh investigative journalist as he travels deep into the Soviet Union to uncover an international conspiracy. His lifeor-death journey inspires George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm.’ Agnieszka Holland’s film is a bold and heartfelt movie with a real Lean-ian sweep. Her film begins slowly, even unassumingly as young Gareth Jones (James Norton) – having already made a splash by interviewing Hitler – uses his London government contacts with David Lloyd George (Kenneth Cranham) to get official permissions to travel to the USSR, on a mission to interview Stalin and discover the truth about the colossal economic expansion and its apparently triumphant five-year plan. With cinematography that captures the bleakness of winter and deprivation to grimly palatable effect, Holland’s drama comes across in part as a meticulously mounted, sometimes solemn history lesson. POLAND/UK/UKRAINE 2020 AGNIESZKA HOLLAND 119M

HOW THE ARTS HAVE PUT CHICHESTER ON THE MAP Exhibition Open 25 June 2022 – 25 Feb 2023

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In a brand new Festival initiative for 2022, we open our doors to five local young people to programme a Festival film, promote it, and host the event at Cineworld Chichester. Our first TEEN TAKEOVER programmers are: Lyla Andrews; Phoebe Fairall; Laura Kiselyk-Molina; Amy Morris; and Sophie Wylam from Bishop Luffa School, Chichester. The team have chosen THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY to start off, and will continue in the Autumn with further screenings at New Park. Our thanks to all our Festival Patrons, Film Hub South East and the BFI for supporting this exciting initiative.