We present the DOCU/ART film programme of the 22nd Docudays UA through the curatorial text by the festival programmer Olga Sydorushkina.
This year’s DOCU/ART programme shows that the art of memory is not only about preserving the past — it is also an active engagement with it. Through materials of archive , intimate recollections, and occasionally provocative imagery, these films invite us to reflect on what it means to remember with responsibility. They stir, inspire, and challenge us to reconsider our notions of history, guilt, legacy — and art as a form of healing.
I’m Not Everything I Want to Be by director Klára Tasovská explores the personal diary as testimony of life in Prague after the events of 1968. This intimate documentary portrait tells the story of Czech photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková, often referred to as the Czech Nan Goldin. For decades, she photographed her life, family, and close surroundings, creating an archive that captures not only her personal transformation but also the societal changes in Czechoslovakia following the Prague Spring.
Still from I’m Not Everything I Want to Be
Director Klára Tasovská transforms this archive into a cinematic journey through time — an exploration of freedom, identity, and the intersections of body, art, and politics. The film weaves together archival footage, black-and-white photography, interviews, and the protagonist’s own voice-over reflections. She speaks candidly about loneliness, queerness, self-realization, and the search for meaning through the camera lens. More than just a portrait or documentation of an era, this is a profound cinematic essay on self-perception in a world in flux.
The Propagandist is a slow-paced yet powerful exploration of historical memory, manipulation, and responsibility. It gradually unveils the figure of Jan Teunissen — the head of Nazi film propaganda in the occupied Netherlands. Built from archival footage, family recordings, and a rare audio interview from the 1960s, the film retraces the path of an ambitious filmmaker who, in pursuit of success, abandoned ethics and became a tool of the Nazi regime.
Still from The Propagandist
Director Luc Bouwens doesn’t simply explore the biography of his subject — he deconstructs how propaganda works. The film examines how personal ambition, the desire for recognition, and resentment can lead to conscious collaboration with evil. Through excerpts from propaganda films and Jan Teunissen’s voice-over self-justifications, we see the portrait of a “small man” with grand pretensions — someone who found it convenient to avoid asking difficult questions and to see himself as an “artist beyond politics.”
This year’s Rotterdam Film Festival winner Fiume o Morte! (Fiume or Death!) by Igor Bezinović is a brilliant cinematic experiment and a reflection on the nature of commemoration. At its center is the little-known yet symbolic story of Italian poet, soldier, and nationalist Gabriele D’Annunzio, who, in 1919, led an armed takeover of the city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) and proclaimed it an “Italian” state.
Still from Fiume o Morte!
The film blends archival photographs, theatrical reenactments, expert commentary, and carnivalesque absurdity. Bezinović doesn’t just recount the story of the city’s occupation — he exposes the process of its reconstruction, including street castings, interviews with passersby, and lines spoken in the city's lost dialect. He doesn’t conceal the artificiality of the staging — on the contrary, he emphasizes it, probing how D’Annunzio’s legacy remains alive in today’s political and cultural narratives. Irony laced with unease permeates the film, prompting a key question: how should we remember traumatic figures of the past who romanticize violence? Utopian slogans, militarism, the cult of the charismatic leader — all of it feels eerily familiar today.
The film I’m Not Everything I Want to Be from this DOCU/ART selection was also screened at the Sunny Bunny Festival. As part of a solidarity initiative among cultural events, Docudays UA will host a discussion on inter-festival partnership during this year’s edition.
Featured image: a still from Fiume o Morte!
The 22nd Docudays UA is held with the financial support of the European Union, the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, International Renaissance Foundation. The opinions, conclusions, or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, the governments, or organisations of these countries. Responsibility for the content of the publication lies exclusively with the authors and editors of the publication.
