We continue working with international festivals to popularize Ukrainian cinema and culture. The One World Romania festival, which begins in Romania on 13 May, will host screenings of Ukrainian documentaries from the Docudays UA programmes of past years, as well as a discussion on The Responsibility of Cinema in the Face of Russian Invasion.

Darya Averchenko, the Communications Director and a member of the Selection Council of Docudays UA, notes: “By organizing panel discussions and screenings of Ukrainian films at One World Romania, we wanted to tell our neighbors that war is closer than it seems. It is happening not just physically in our country’s territory, but also at a cultural level, it’s a war for the minds of citizens. This frontline has no borders, and now it’s extremely important to understand that the influence of Russia and the Russian imperial culture on minds should be limited for the sake of their own security. Russia fights against the values of Europe, against democracy, against countries’ right to self-determination. Russian culture lays the ideological foundation for this fight.”

The Romanian audience will have a chance to see new and best Ukrainian documentaries:

• Boney Piles by Taras Tomenko
• Plai. A Mountain Path by Eva Dzhyshyashvili
• This Rain Will Never Stop by Alina Gorlova
• The Earth Is Blue as an Orange by Iryna Tsilyk

On May 16, the discussion The Responsibility of Cinema in the Face of Russian Invasion will raise an issue which is important for the art community and for our team: stopping any cooperation with Russian filmmakers and cultural figures until the end of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. These calls have been voiced by the Ukrainian culture community since the beginning of the full-scale war against Ukraine, but they frequently have no response in Western countries. During the discussion, we will talk about a broader range of issues raised by this problem, particularly Russia’s responsibility for long-term colonial policies.

Participants of the discussion:

Bohdan Zhuk, programmer for the Molodist International Film Festival in Kyiv;

Serhiy Ksaverov, film critic, member of the International Federation of Film Press, curator of the Kyiv Critics Week;

Natalia Libet, producer;

Zhanna Ozirna, producer and director.

The discussion will be moderated by Monica Stan, Artistic Director of the One World Romania.