New Films in Our Collection

July 1, 2008

"The Soviet Story," dir. Edvins Snore (Latvia).

Over the last few months the collection of the UFCCU has expanded to include the first Ukrainian post-Soviet narrative feature for children, "An Awesome Tale," by Roman Shyrman; the much anticipated drama, "Birds of Paradise," by Roman Balayan, produced in Ukrainian and Russian language versions; a short detective feature, "The Dummy," by Kira Muratova; a charming short documentary, "Fiesta," by Anna Yarovenko celebrating Ukrainian folk art and its discovery and re-invention over the last years by urban youth; a risqué short feature, "Fireflies," by Nadia Koshman, a "love story" of a village girl and a city boy both about 8 years old; an erotic and - by some accounts - scandalous drama, "Sappho," by Robert Crombie, "Las Meninas," the directorial debut of Ihor Podolchak, an internationally recognized artist based in Kyiv; "Kolky," dir. Natasha Mikhalchuk.
We also acquired a 10-DVD collection of films which participated in the official competition of the Open Night Film Festival (Vidkryta Nich) over the eleven years of its existence. They document the emergence of a new post-Soviet Ukrainian film. Our collection of films treating Ukrainian themes and made outside Ukraine, which we screen under the heading "Ukraine: a View from the West" has been enriched by: "Folk," dir. Roxy Toporovych (USA), "The  English Surgeon," dir. Geoffrey Smith (UK) and "The Soviet Story," dir. Edvins Snore (Latvia).