Serhiy Stetsenko

The mother has been in the hemodialysis department for more than a month. The son comes to visit his sick mother almost every day. They hardly talk, but obviously, they love each other. This is how thousands of patients with end-stage renal disease live in anticipation of implementing the Law on Posthumous organ donation. Relatives of such patients chaotically look for a way to save them or wait for a miracle. Today the son came to his mother very nervous. He looks around for a long time and strokes her face while she sleeps. The guy knows what to do.

Rule of Two Walls explores the war in Ukraine through the lens of artists living and creating in the midst of unprecedented conflict. Visceral, poetic, and urgent, it illuminates the vital role of cultural and spiritual defiance in times of crisis.

The film’s events take place on a single day: August 24, 2022, the day Ukraine celebrates the 31st anniversary of the renewal of independent statehood. The film combines places and people that best capture the country’s wartime spirit. The locations are: the relatively safe cities of Kyiv and Lviv; the cities under daily missile fire of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv; a trench at the frontlines near Donetsk; and the beaches of Odesa. The film presents a day in the life of a beach police patrol, a woman anti-tank missile operator, a water delivery driver, a mortar unit soldier, a rapid assault unit soldier, a 14-year-old pub janitor, an artist and a former member of parliament. Together, these people and places create an engaging mosaic of a day in the life of Ukraine.

For five teenagers living in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine, a Himalayan expedition provides a brief escape from reality. A portrait of a generation that, in spite of everything, is able to recognise and celebrate the fragile beauty of life. The film's working title was "Expedition 49".

This film plays out in Ukraine on a single day: March 14, 2022, the 2,944th day of the Russian-Ukrainian War. In the last few weeks, intense warfare has surreally mixed places and people and created a post-apocalyptic dimension revealing new qualities and roles. Thousands of Kyivans have moved to live in subway stations. The capital city's previously calm suburbs have been transformed into battle zones of destruction and looting by Russian occupiers. People no longer live according to "workdays" or "weekends," counting instead the number of days since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine... The film presents this day in the lives of a pop music star, video engineer, historian, art restorer, polar researcher, and pensioner, who were all forced to radically change their lives.

Once upon a time in the dressing room of the famous Dakh theatre in Kyiv, seven actresses came up with the Dakh Daughters project. At their first solo show, Roses, they presented the world with a contemporary interpretation of the art of cabaret, which, in its absolute carnival freedom, knows how to entertain the public with the most serious topics. At the same time, Ukraine found itself on the threshold of significant change, not just in society, but also in the consciousnesses of thousands of people. The Revolution of Dignity and the war in the East reveal the nuances of the protagonists’ personalities, worldviews, creative reflections.

Since the uprising of a pro Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine in 2014, hundreds of woman joined the army. Only a few made it to the front line. Filmmaker Masha embeds herself in the war zone to follow the daily life of three of them. By sharing the intimacy of these fighters, Masha soon becomes a victim of this brotherhood conflict jeopardizing this film and her life.

"Home Games" is a broken fairytale depicting a crucial moment in the life of Alina, a 20-year-old "million dollar baby" from Kyiv, whose passion for football has a chance of saving her from poverty.

In an age when disinformation muddles the truth, a newly discovered voice cuts through the historical haze. She is Rhea Clyman, a young Canadian reporter who traversed the starving Soviet heartland when Stalin’s man made famine was just beginning in Ukraine. Clyman’s newly discovered newspaper articles for Toronto and London newspapers in 1932 show her remarkable resourcefulness and courage. After she was banished from the USSR for writing about the Holodomor and the Gulag, this brave woman went on to cover Hitler’s early lethal years in power.

Short documentary depicts the life of Alina Shilova, a 20-year-old girl from Kyiv, whose passion for football has a chance of saving her from poverty. Alina is now a professional player, but her situation remains uncertain: her mother suddenly dies, leaving behind Alina's beloved siblings, Renat and Regina, 6 and 7 years old. Alina becomes a substitute mother. Her career plans are on the verge of collapse. The whole dysfunctional family is living in a cramped one-room apartment. Alina wants to give her brother and sister a better life than the one she had. Will she find the strength to cope with everything? How can you win the match of your life when the odds are stacked against you?

How far can you go on the way to your dream? Zhenia and Maks stopped going to the office and took up music seriously. Their band is called Reve ta Stohne. The guys do growl singing and dream of becoming real rock stars. However, for a start they need a music video and a studio album. And most of all they need money to pay for them. In search of income, Reve ta Stohne travels to the West.

Jewish cemetery in Riga, Latvia became a park in the 1960s. Now the park becomes a place for alcoholics and American tourists, but still he last witness of violent history. A film dedicated to Jewish community.

A revolution changes the social and political 'landscapes' of a country, but first and foremost it changes the physical landscape. For centuries none of the city centers of the world capitals looked nothing like the Maidan in the last few months, which resembles a medieval town and a futuristic fantasy at the same time.

Seven versions of Riga, the city on the Baltic Sea, and its features as seen by outstanding European film directors: Sergei Loznitsa (The Old Jewish Cemetery), Ivars Seleckis (On Ķīpsala), Audrius Stonys (Riga Boats), Jaak Kilmi (Littering Prohibited!), Jon Bang Karlsen (Cats in Riga), Rainer Komers (Daugava Delta), and Bettina Henkel (Theatre Street 6).

A man and a woman meet during a calm autumn day in the middle of Crimean field. By the end of their journey we realize that their meeting was destined.

Una mirada weismaniana a los disturbios civiles que acontecieron en la plaza central de la capital de Ucrania, documento único e insobornable de lo que realmente ocurrió en aquellos turbulentos meses. La historia frente a nuestros ojos. En Maidan se dan discursos, se conversa y se canta pero, sobre todo, es punto de encuentro y unión. Maidan, la Plaza de la Independencia de Kiev, el equivalente a la Puerta del Sol madrileña, fue el escenario del particular 15M del pueblo ucraniano: excepcional movimiento popular cuya mecha fue encendida por la negativa del presidente Yanukovych a entrar en la Unión Europea. Una película urgente –terminada apenas a tiempo para Cannes– del gran Sergei Loznitsa (In the Fog).

A documentary triptych about a group of homeless kids, who have survived their drug-addicted childhood, grew up and started to live an adult life. It’s a story about a boy facing the surreal, degenerated society of his native village full of hate and sadistic anger while searching for his mother. It’s a story about a pregnant girl who wants to give birth to her child whose childhood will probably be even worse than hers. But her own sisters are forcing her to have an abortion.

A story of pure love in dirty conditions.