Lukian Halkin

Liverpool. The Blue and Yellow Submarine

A documentary project that shows viewers behind the scenes of this cultural exchange and explores the current processes of integrating Ukrainian culture into the European context. The heroes of the project are the participants and visitors of the festival, who demonstrate with their own stories the unique connection and cultural integration of Ukraine into the plane of Liverpool, one of the cultural capitals of Europe. In particular, Sarah Fisher, director of Liverpool's Open eye gallery, Yuliia Kurinna, a volunteer and displaced person from Nova Kakhovka, and actor and director Yurii Radionov will share their thoughts.

Smoldering. Tree of Life

A story about Ukrainian monumental art of the Soviet period in Mariupol. Photographer Stanislav Ivanov lived in Mariupol all his life. He studied history, streets, houses, monumental art. Some of the mosaics are more than half a century old. The "Tree of Life" panel - created by a team of artists led by Alla Gorska and Viktor Zaretsky - was bricked up after the death of the artist and reopened in 2008. This and other stories were collected by Stanislav Ivanov and art critic Oleksandr Chernov in the album "All Shades of Mariupol Mosaics". After February 24, 2022, the mosaicists, like hundreds of thousands of residents of Mariupol, became hostages of the occupying forces of the Russian Federation. In the film, we are transported to peaceful Mariupol in December 2021 and, together with Stanislav, explore the city and its mosaics, transported to a place where time and the elements seemed to be the greatest threats.

Shchedryk Against the "Russian World"

The story of the world tour of the choir chapel conducted by Oleksandr Koshyts in 1918-1924. By the coincidence of modern history, the plot of the film raises a number of current problems of today - opposition to Russian cultural expansion and propaganda, issues of cultural diplomacy of Ukraine, the place of Ukrainian cultural product in the world and its struggle for itself.

Kalush Orchestra, or How We Stopped Worrying and Won Eurovision During the War

A documentary story about the participation and victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 by the Ukrainian band Kalush Orkestra.

In Search of Skovoroda

A documentary film about the outstanding Ukrainian poet and philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda. The film contains restoration staged episodes and interviews with experts. The film has four story-lines: the first is a journey of two Mohilian students Marichka and Bohdan to places associated with the philosopher; the second consisted of a series of conversations with leading Ukrainian intellectuals, researchers of the thinker's heritage, musicians, artists, artists; the third is Ukrainian nature, picturesque landscapes that were of great importance for the philosopher; the fourth was war. The tricentenary of Skovoroda fell at the time of full-scale Russian aggression.

Smoldering. To Be a Formalist

In an effort to perpetuate its ideology, the Soviet authorities filled the cities and villages of Ukraine with propaganda sculptures, frescoes, and mosaics. Over time, the style of some authors transformed from realism to formalism. But they still had to balance between the fulfillment of the party's order and the embodiment of universal plots. The majestic works of one of the monumental artists Ivan Lytovchenko are now slowly being destroyed under the influence of forces of nature and radiation on the buildings of the once young and flourishing, but now abandoned city of Prypiat. Numerous works and other authors of the past century still shape the space of Ukrainian cities and villages. What is it like to be a formalist artist in a totalitarian system? Does the monumental legacy of the Soviet Union have the right to be preserved in today's independent Ukraine?

No See / No Sin

Slavik is a young Kharkiv ceramist who often works with naked models while creating his sculptures. He is a Pentecostal believer and faces rejection of his work by the religious community to which he belongs. He decides to find out if his art is a sin. He meets several priests of different confessions, artists and the editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine to find out where the moral line is between temptation and creativity. Furthermore, he decides to create a sculpture of a blind girl being blindfolded himself in order "not to be tempted" by the body of the model.

Wasteland Tour

This documentary is a portrait of several residents in a remote region of Ukraine. They dream of sunken treasures, sing in a village choir, fight raiders and design coffins for themselves - in short, they live a normal Ukrainian life.

Why ‘Ukraine’?

The film tells three personal stories about the famous bicycle. The film's protagonists are a cultural manager from Kyiv, an engineer from Kharkiv, and a utility worker from the Carpathians. These are very different people, but they are all united by the fact that they ride the Ukraine bicycle.