On February 24th, 2022 Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a severe escalation of the war they started in 2014. Their attempt to take over Ukraine's capital city, Kyiv, failed, but they still occupy eastern parts of the country. Russia is only held back from advancing by Ukraine's armed forces and military aid from western countries. The aggressor's long whitewashing of Ukrainian history and culture has led to many erroneously associating the two nations. Before 2022, many people might not have been able to find the country on the map. Nor did they realize that Ukrainian is a separate language widely used throughout the nation.
The indescribably tragic events since February 2022 and Ukraine's fierce resistance has proven without a shadow of a doubt that it has no desire to be a part of its malevolent eastern neighbor and has always had a unique culture distinct from it. The ten films below are also evidence of this. They are not just all-time greats in Ukraine or even the larger eastern Europe. They stand shoulder to shoulder with classics from all over the world and Hollywood. Any cinephile who hasn't seen these movies needs to add them to their watchlist. Fortunately, many of these are available on takflix.com, a Ukrainian streaming service dedicated to making the country's cinema accessible to audiences all over the world.
10 Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors
Director Sergei Parajanov isn't actually Ukrainian - he was born in Georgia and his parents were Armenian - but that doesn't stop Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors from being revered as one of the great Ukrainian films ever made. It describes the tragic romance of two young lovers in a Hutsul village in the Carpathian mountains.
In addition to showcasing the gorgeous aesthetic of Hutsul culture, it also features stunning camerawork and a performance by legendary actor Ivan Mykolaichuk. The movie's impact would kick off a string of Ukrainian films that looked to the country's past for inspiration.
9 Mustache Funk
Mustache funk is the nickname given to an era of Ukrainian music from the late 60s to the early 1980s that mixes Ukrainian melodies, lyrics, and structures with American funk and R&B. Most of the performers of the time wore glorious facial hair, hence the name given to the style and the name of the documentary.
The movie does a good job of setting a tone about the music and the era, but it doesn't dive deep into details about individual performers, songwriters, or bands. After watching the documentary, viewers should search further into the culture by listening to compositions by the composer Volodymyr Ivasyuk and watching the musical television film Chervona Ruta.
8 My Thoughts Are Silent
A tall, somewhat socially awkward sound designer is tasked with capturing animal sounds in the western part of Ukraine for an upcoming video game. The only problem is his mother tags along for the ride. This dark comedy deals with the generational differences between young adults and their parents.
The protagonist is also desperate to leave his home country for a part of the world he considers brighter and filled with more opportunities. Though there are tons of laughs in this movie even for those who are unfamiliar with the country, it has its moment of dramatic tension and is not a feel-good ride from start to finish.
7 Babylon XX
Many descriptions of Babylon XX make it sound like a solemn historical drama about a doomed village caught in the conflict between communists and wealthy landowners.
This is certainly the backdrop of the action, but the movie is filled with erotic humor, romance, and philosophical musings. Actor Ivan Mykolaichuk directs and stars in the movie. As satisfying as the finished product is, the movie went through a lot of trouble with the Soviet censors, affecting the finished product. Unfortunately, this happened to many films made during the era.
6 Atlantis
Atlantis stars real Ukrainian veterans. The movie is set in the near future after the war with Russia is over and follows a veteran, played by Andriy Rymaruk as he tries to adjust to life outside of the battlefield.
The film is mostly composed of several extremely long takes with minimal camera movement. The female lead, Liudmily Bileka, is also a combat medic in real life. The movie is bleak and shows that war has an irreversible impact on both the people involved and the environment.
5 White Bird With A Black Mark
This movie is also the brainchild of actor Ivan Mykolaichuk. White Bird With a Black Mark follows a family in Ukraine's Bukovina region during the first half of the 20th century.
They start as slaves during the Romanian occupation and eventually through World War 2 and the takeover by the Red Army. The three brothers of the family all take different paths through this turbulent point in history and deal with the moral ramifications of the decisions each of them makes.
4 The Earth Is As Blue As An Orange
This documentary follows a family living inside the conflict zone since 2014. They cope through their love of film. The Earth is as Blue as an Orange chronicles the family as they make their own movie and as one of the daughters follows her ambition to enroll in film school.
The story unfolds organically and does not use interviews or direct exposition. The cinematography is also gorgeous. It could fool someone into thinking they are watching a drama and not a documentary.
3 The Lost Letter
The story of The Lost Letter is simple. A Cossack warrior simply needs to deliver a letter to Petersburg, Russia. What happens on the journey is the truly interesting part.
The Lost Letter is a slapstick comedy that dives into the surreal. It establishes its tone right in the intro with an interesting framing device. An old man tells the story of his ancestors and casts those around him as the main roles before the action jumps back in time.
2 Earth
On the surface, Earth looks like a piece of Soviet propaganda espousing the virtues of collectivization, a policy that would cause the Holodomor famine and kill millions. It is ultimately significantly deeper than that, however, due to its poetic cinematography and plot.
The film follows a village as it transforms its ideals to fit the Soviet way of life and abandons its older traditions and religion. It still is considered one of the finest movies ever made and its imagery is boosted by a new original soundtrack by the band DakhaBrakha.
1 Rhino
Director Oleg Sentsov spent five years of a twenty-year sentence in a Russian prison on false charges after the invasion of Crimea, he was eventually freed as a result of a prisoner swap. After February 24th, he became a soldier and started defending his country. In between these two events he made Rhino, a stark portrayal of gangsters in 1990s Ukraine shortly after the country's independence.
The protagonist progressively grows crueler and more violent as the movie goes on, but maybe redemption is just around the corner. What would redemption mean for someone who has gone too far into darkness, though? In addition to its plot, the movie is also a great tone piece to understand what the country was like during the 1990s. Everyone was dealing with extreme poverty and scarcity.