Ukrainian Cinema: Poetry and Resistance

March 21–April 13, 2025

From lyrical to epic genres, from the deep social conflicts to the joy of liberty, this program expresses the character of the Ukrainian people, who continue to resist Russian imperialism in the ongoing war. 

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  • Oleksandr Dovzhenko: Earth, 1930

  • Sergei Parajanov: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors , 1965

  • Mark Donskoi: At Great Cost, 1957

  • Oleksandr Dovzhenko: Arsenal, 1929

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Earth

    Oleksandr Dovzhenko
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1930

    BAMPFA Collection

    Friday, March 21 7:00 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    The poetic lyricism of Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s Earth makes it one of the great works of cinema, using the emotional power of the image to express the director’s love for his homeland.

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  • In Spring

    Mikhail Kaufman
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1929

    BAMPFA Collection

    Friday, March 28 7:00 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    Mikhail Kaufman, who had just served as cameraman on his brother Dziga Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera, debuted as director with this elegiac, impressionist observation of seasons changing in old Kyiv. With Dmytro Dalskyi’s symphony of Kharkiv, Sketches of the Soviet City.

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  • At Great Cost

    Mark Donskoi
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1957
    Sunday, March 30 2:30 PM

    Two star-crossed lovers run from an arranged marriage and the police in this delicately naturalistic work. Based on a story by Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors).

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  • Poem of the Sea

    Yuliya Solntseva
    USSR, 1958
    Thursday, April 3 7:00 PM

    “Poem of the Sea, which tells of the construction of an artificial sea, necessitating the flooding of a village, is remarkable for its confidence, grandeur and glowing beauty” (Ronald Bergan, Camera Lucida).

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  • Ukrainian Rhapsody

    Sergei Parajanov
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1961
    Sunday, April 6 3:00 PM

    A Ukrainian singer recalls her greatest love in this early work by the director of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, inspired by Ukrainian naive art, folk songs, and the American musical. “Complex and fascinating . . . [with] tropes that turn a social-realist musical into a hallucinatory fantasy” (Judy Bloch).

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  • Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

    Sergei Parajanov
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1965

    Digital Restoration

    Thursday, April 10 7:00 PM
    Introduced by Oleksandr Teliuk and Elizabeth Astrid Papazian

    Pagan rituals, demonology, folklore, and legend come to life in Sergei Parajanov’s hypnotic update of a Romeo and Juliet tale. “Astonishing . . . one of the supreme works of Soviet cinema” (Jonathan Rosenbaum).

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  • Prometheus

    Ivan Kavaleridze
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1935
    Friday, April 11 2:30 PM
    Introduced by Stanislav Menzelevskyi

    A Ukrainian peasant transforms from conscripted soldier in the Caucasus to revolutionary leader in this daring critique of Russian chauvinism and imperialism.

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  • A Spring for the Thirsty

    Yurii Illienko
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1965

    BAMPFA Collection

    Friday, April 11 5:00 PM

    The memories of a lonely old man blend with the specific landscapes of the Dnipro River in this “wonder in every sense of the word” (Russell Merritt), by the cinematographer of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Banned for twenty-two years, it was finally released during Perestroika in 1987.

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  • Ukrainian Film Symposium

    Free Admission

    Cosponsored by the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies; the Armenian Studies Program; and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, UC Berkeley

    Saturday, April 12 1:00–4:45 PM

    We will welcome six visiting scholars to join the UC Berkeley campus community to share their ideas and research, adding nuance and depth to the existing perspectives of Ukrainian Soviet cinema, moving beyond simplistic colonial dichotomies and outdated canons.

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  • The Stone Cross

    Leonid Osyka
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1968

    BAMPFA Collection

    Sunday, April 13 1:30 PM
    Introduced by Ana Hedberg Olenina

    A thief’s actions cause fissures in a small Ukrainian village in this elemental tale of punishment and forgiveness, adapted by poet/activist Ivan Drach from the writings of Vasyl Stefanyk. “The sense that these characters are enacting some kind of preordained ritual gives the film an otherworldly feel” (Film at Lincoln Center). 

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  • Arsenal

    Oleksandr Dovzhenko
    USSR/Ukrainian SSR, 1929

    BAMPFA Collection

    Sunday, April 13 3:45 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano; Introduced by Vincent Bohlinger

    Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s poetic account of the events leading up to a bloody battle contains some of the most memorable images in Soviet cinema.

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