Ukraine in Focus Begins in Tbilisi
On April 27, the Ukrainian Film Festival “Ukraine in Focus” opening ceremony will be held in Tbilisi. Modern Ukrainian films will be shown at “Amirani” Cinema (36 Kostava Str.) from April 27 to April 30. Attendance for all guests will be free of charge. Films will be shown in their original languages with English and Georgian subtitles. The program of film screening and other details will be posted on the festival's Facebook page.
“Ukraine in Focus” will open with a film by director Taras Tkachenko called “The Nest of a Turtledove” (2016). Then on April 28-30 the following films will be screened at the festival: “My Grandmother Fanny Kaplan” (Director Olena Demianenko, 2016), “#SELFIEPARTY” (Director Lyubomyr Levytsky, 2016), "Ukrainian Sheriffs” (Documentary film, directed by Roman Bondarchuk, 2016), “Close Relations” (Documentary film, directed by Vitaliy Mansky, 2016), “The Servant of Nation 2“(Film, Directed by Oleksiy Kiriuschenko, 2016).
“Ukraine in Focus” prepared a separate event for short film lovers. On April 29, short feature films—winners of Odessa International Film Festival—will be screened: “Away” (Directed by Katya Gornostay, 2015), “Nail” (Directed by Philip Sotnichenko, 2016), “Men’s Work” (Directed by Maryna Stepanska, 2015), and “It was raining in Manchester” (Directed by Antonio Lukich, 2016).
And the Ukrainian Film Festival has not ignored younger audience members. The animated film “The Dragon Spell” (Mykyta Kozhumyaka), directed by Manouk Depoyan, will be screened in its original Ukrainian. This cartoon was released in 2016 and according to world film rental, it has been watched more than 165,000 times.
Beside film screenings, those who are interested may also attend master classes and meetings with Ukrainian cinematographers on April 28, at RadioCafe (2 Dolidze Str. Tbilisi). Film operator Jaroslav Pillunsky will introduce the project “Yellow Bus,” which aims to support cultural-educational communication with kids; and the director of Zhovten Cinema in Kiev, Ludmila Gordeladze, will speak about her experience in cinematography. The meeting will be led by film and theater actress Rimma Zyubina, who stars in “The Nest of a Turtledove.” General producer of the Odessa International Film Festival Yuliya Synkevich will talk about building a festival strategy for a film. Director Roman Bondarchuk will talk about the ‘subaqueous stone’ of an Oscar campaign, based on the case of his film “Ukrainian Sheriffs.” The talks will be completed with a discussion on cinematography issues between Ukrainian producers and Philip Illenko, the Chairman of the Ukrainian State Film Agency.
Maria Moskalenko, the organizer of the festival, commented: "[The] Ukrainian Film Festival is organized in Tbilisi for the third time and each year this extraordinary event is visited by more and more film lovers of different ages and nationalities. This year we have on the program modern films of various genres and we hope that every viewer will be able to attend the film screenings of his/her interest, will learn more about Ukrainian cinematography and take something special from the festival."
The festival was organized by the company FX Film Georgia and JS Films. The event was organized with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, the Embassy of Ukraine in Georgia, the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, the Georgian National Film Center, the Odessa International Film Festival, and Company Solar Media Entertainment and Arcadia Media House.