On 15 October, the Travelling Festival season starts in the DOCUSPACE online cinema. Six documentary stories will be available for viewing. Let us tell you about the films and the screening conditions.

15 October — 30 November

The programme will be opened by the Oscar-nominated film by Simon Lereng Wilmont and Alisa Kovalenko — Girl Away from Home. The story is about 13-year-old Nastia, a gymnast from Kyiv. After winning the Ukrainian championship with a group of close friends, Nastia and her grandmother have to flee to Germany because of the war in Ukraine. In the unfamiliar city of Gelsenkirchen, Nastia has to start over and live without knowing if she will ever see her parents and friends again.

22 — 30 November

During the last week of the Travelling Festival, you will have the opportunity to watch five films that sensitively reflect on the themes of human rights, memory, home and the relationship between humans and nature.

A still from the film Caught in the Net

As part of the information campaign Sexual Abuse on the Internet: How to Protect Children, which Docudays UA, DOCU/CLUB Network and Magnolia NGO jointly launched this year, we will invite you to watch the Czech feature film Caught in the Net, directed by Vít Klusák and Barbora Chalupová. In this film, three adult actresses pretend to be twelve-year-old girls and register on the most popular 18+ social networks for an experiment that opens up the complex, painful and rather stigmatised topic of child sexual abuse. Unfortunately, the problem has been affecting all countries, and its scale is only growing.

The Kyiv Files by the Dutch director Walter Stokman takes us back to the times when Ukraine was under Soviet totalitarianism and the state had complete control over all citizens. Based on the memoirs of three people who had the opportunity to see the KGB files on them, the film raises the question of personal responsibility for crimes under dictatorship.

The film Kiosk by Polish director Daniel Stopa received two special awards at the Docudays UA festival in Kyiv: in the DOCU/SHORT competition and from the student jury. The film is about women's friendship and solidarity. Two women in a newsagent's kiosk fill out divorce papers for one of them so that she can start a new life without fear and violence.

A still from the film Boots on the Ground, Hands in the Soil

The short but poignant story of Boots on the Ground, Hands in the Soil by Karolina Uskakovych is a reflection on the power of human connection with nature, small homeland, family traditions, as well as on the revival of identity and the therapeutic effect of gardening. 

Karolina, who lives in the Netherlands, once complained to her grandmother on the phone about the local tomatoes: they were tasteless. When she came to visit her grandmother Zoya, a proud Ukrainian pensioner, in the winter of 2021, she gave her granddaughter a bag of her own tomato seeds. However, the next season of tomato growing was threatened by the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine. Despite the difficult circumstances, in the spring of 2022, Zoya and Karolina sowed tomatoes: one in her garden in Vinnytsia and the other on the balcony of her apartment in the faraway Netherlands. Zoya teaches Karolina how to take care of plants, and in their everyday conversations they touch upon the topic of Russification, the inferiority complex that has been instilled in a generation of Ukrainians, and the ability of our nation to survive and revive under any circumstances.

Another film with a Dutch flavour, Nelson the Piglet by Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden, shows a family who adopted a dwarf pig as a pet. At least, that's what the owners thought until Nelson grew into a half-tonne beast and caused a riot among neighbours, classmates and the police. 

All screenings will start at 10:00 a.m. and will be available for viewing for seven days from the date of ticket purchase. Tickets cost 80 UAH for full-length films and 40 UAH for short films. Please note that online screenings will only be available in Ukraine. 

Main photo: a still from the film Girl Away From Home 

21st Travelling Docudays UA is supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine and International Media Support.

The opinions, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments or charitable organisations of these countries. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of its authors.