Ukraine Cinema: Films Exploring the Human Toll of Russia’s Aggression
Some of Ukraine’s filmmakers have been exploring the trauma that followed Russia’s invasions of Crimea and the Donbas region.
Ambitious Ukrainian filmmakers have made various features that explored the human toll of Russia’s military aggression.
Such cinema offers a kaleidoscopic view into the lives and concerns of contemporary Ukrainians coping with the deadly hardships of Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea and warfare in the Donbas region.
The films offer an opportunity for greater empathy and understanding of the conflict, seen through the vision of Ukrainian artists.
Nariman Aliev’s Homeward premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 (in Un Certain Regard series), marking the debut of a gifted first-time director.
Mustafa has family roots in Crimea’s oppressed Muslim Tatar ethnic minority and feels he must transport Nazim’s body across the country to bury him in his ancestral homeland.
The tale unfolds as a road trip across Ukraine, which becomes fractious and action-filled, taking in a brush with traffic police, an enforced stop in a sleepy village, a lakeside robbery and a clash with border guards.
Ukraine’s Tatars endured unspeakable atrocities during the Soviet era and with Crimea back under Russian occupation since 2014, they face a fresh wave of persecution today; their land seized, their political organizations banned.
Russian imperial power remains the lurking offstage villain in Homeward.
The movie marked the debut of Aliev, who was only 26-year- old, as a rising talent to watch.
