3 Years On, Ukraine On-Screen

A lecture on Ukrainian cinema

I rushed along the Scores towards the Kennedy building, and saw a pink sunset over the North Sea. I am lucky to live in peacetime, and for a moment, on my frantic run, I forgot my destination. It is difficult to imagine having to flee one’s home, and I realise that for many students at this University, this nightmare is a cruel reality.

Inside, as we took our seats, Professor Dina Iordanova prepared to educate our small group on the history of Ukrainian cinema. An expert on the discipline, Iordonova weaves seamlessly from its humble beginnings to its heights, from Parjanov to Ilyenko. Before the fall of the USSR in 1991, over 40 films were produced in Ukraine every year, and now these films fall so easily into oblivion, absorbed into the all-erasing cloud of Soviet pan-Russianism. The event aimed to remind us of their place, in the individual and beautiful tradition of Ukrainian filmmaking.

The Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre, named after the director of the widely renowned films Arsenal (1929) and Earth (1930) lies at the heart of Kyiv, a city scarred by Russia’s full-scale invasion of the territory. Art survives however —  as bombs hit, film screenings moved underground and the centre’s employees continue to fight for the preservation of their heritage. 

Russia’s attack on Ukrainian life and art has not always been so blatant, but what remains clear is their desire to take it for itself. Trying to keep up, the group scribbled in their notebooks as Professor Iordonova took us expertly across 70 years of culture, her immense knowledge obvious to all.

Interviewing Iordonova after the lecture, we discussed her childhood in Bulgaria. Dubbed the 16th Soviet Republic, the country’s close-ties and alliance to the USSR meant that life was forever altered by the rise of communism.

“The monstrosities of Stalinism,” Iordanova recalled, “we had no idea.” It wasn’t all negative however, she mused. As a young girl, she would go to the cinema to see the latest films – Ukrainian cinema dubbed over in Russian, bearing the stamp of the Motherland. The future of Ukrainian film is hopeful, Iordanova assured me, these films are “masterpieces which have been ignored.” Finally, the world can access these films and acknowledge their Ukrainian identity.

Vlada Vazheyevskyy, a postgraduate Anthropology student at St Andrews, arrived in the UK in 2021, a year before the invasion of Ukraine. He and his twin brother are living here, but his mother and older brother remain in the war zone. 

Vazheyevskyy described his position as a graduate assistant to be “precarious,” only paid for two hours a week; he and other graduate students “are in a position to worry, having to navigate interesting working conditions” at this University. Vazheyevskyy praised his “wonderful directors” and supportive colleagues, however, mentioning Professor Victoria Donovan and Doctor Amy Joyce, who have facilitated important events such as these and allowed him to proceed with professional freedom.

The Ukrainian community in St Andrews was hard to find, Vazheyevskyy admitted, with an official, University-affiliated society only formed recently. The society has been active, however, with a protest organised by United Action, taking place last Monday outside Blackfriars Chapel on South Street. The collective aims for its namesake, united action across the world, standing in solidarity with Ukraine, Palestine, and the Congo. As war rages on, these protests remind us that lives are constantly being lost. What can we do to help, to preserve the identities of these war-torn regions? Answers can be found at these events — there is no better time to get involved.

Vazheyevskyy hopes that these events will become more frequent, welcoming not only Ukrainian nationals and refugees, but everyone who wishes to support this worthwhile cause.

This event, these dedicated people, reminded me of the real effects of war, of lives displaced,  of the years of relentless oppression that has allowed global superpowers like Russia to bully and destroy. The cities shall be rebuilt and more films will be made, but one wonders whether such tensions will ever cease?

Three years on, the fight for Ukraine’s freedom continues.

Illustration by Isabelle Holloway