On October 30, Docudays UA in collaboration with the Goethe Institut in Ukraine are inviting everyone to attend a screening of one of the best films in this year’s special festival program EQUALITY SYNDROME.

The Grown-Ups focuses on the questionable insurmountability of barriers between people with Down syndrome and the society defined by the state as “normal.” The Chilean director Maite Alberdi captures the absurdity and cruelty of these limits with incredible precision. The film’s protagonists attend a special education institution for people with Down syndrome. Here, they are taught how to cook and manage their finances, and the institution’s workers discuss sexual life with them. Despite being taught how to become “responsible adults,” all the four protagonists remain dependent on other people who make decisions for them. And they are very disappointed with this situation.

The screening of The Grown-Ups will be a part of the "What Is Important" exhibition that opened in the Kyiv creative space Izone. It is the first art exhibition in Ukraine about and involving people with Down syndrome. The curators Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko have selected and combined 40 artworks which allow the visitors to dive into the world of the things that are important for people, with or without the additional chromosome.

The project includes artworks created by contemporary Ukrainian artists in the past 20 years, as well as projects realized by people with Down syndrome, independently or in partnership with other artists. The guests will also have a chance to see some art from Germany — works by artists with Down syndrome and a series of photographic portraits. The exhibition will be open for visitors from November 8.

The Grown-Ups by Maite Alberdi

October 30, 7 p.m.

IZONE (8 Naberezhno-Luhova str.)

Header photo: The Grown-Ups by Maite Alberdi