Program

Six premieres of recent hits of Ukrainian and Dutch cinema. The curators of the festival chose three films, which best give an idea of the existing situation of Dutch cinema. On the other hand, a team of film critics from The Netherlands chose three Ukrainian films that reflect the Ukrainian film process, with its genre and auteur searches.

The Dutch side is represented by a Dutch journalist who writes about movies and culture for national media such as De Telegraaf and NU.nl Fabian Melchers, a film critic from the Dutch Daily (Nederlands Dagblad) and climate mayor of Dordrecht Boaz van Luijk, a Dutch film critic, who writes for the Dutch magazine de Filmkrant Laura van Zuylen.

The partner of the program "Focus: Ukraine — Netherlands" — the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine.

Ukrainian cinema is often associated with poetic movement. This tradition, which began with Oleksandr Dovzhenko and continued through the 1960s and 1970s with a wave of Ukrainian poetic cinema, transcended traditional narratives and the aesthetic means of realism. One of the key factors behind this movement was the inseparable connection between Ukrainian cinema and the rich traditions of fantastic (in the broadest sense) Ukrainian classical literature and folklore. This program seeks to extend those connections beyond the canon of Ukrainian poetic cinema and to highlight the enduring interest of Ukrainian filmmakers in other literary traditions: modern fantasy literature (Yuriy Smolych), bizarre prose (Volodymyr Drozd, Valeriy Shevchuk), and global modernist literature (Franz Kafka).

This program offers a chance to explore a different facet of poetic Ukrainian cinema—what we propose to call bizarre—demonstrating the persistence of literary influences in Ukrainian cinema while expanding the understanding of its poetics. The program also includes re-premieres of newly scanned copies of films (Miracle in the Land of Oblivion, Black Moon Degree) that have long been available only in poor quality. The return of these hidden gems of Ukrainian cinema to the audience is a reminder of the incredible wealth of stories and artistry hidden within our own culture and history

The Stranger Than Paradise program is dedicated to the independent film scene in the United States during the 1970s and 1990s. It was during this period that the very concept of indie film as a distinct aesthetic and production model was formalized. Films made outside the major Hollywood studios began to carve out a significant presence in the country’s cultural and economic landscape.

This program tracks two key processes. The first is how seemingly small films became agents of enormous influence. The cult status and fame of Jim Sharman’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show and John Waters’ Hairspray were entirely disproportionate to the modest marketing efforts made by their distributors at the time of their release.

The victory at Cannes of Sex, Lies, and Videotape by 26-year-old debut director Steven Soderbergh defied conventional industry hierarchies and reshaped perceptions of American independent cinema.

The second process is the increasing symbiosis between indie cinema and the mainstream film industry, which intensified in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Directors like Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, and Susan Seidelman all began as independent filmmakers but eventually transitioned into studio filmmaking. Was this a loss of their unique voices or an enrichment of world cinema? Films like Do the Right Thing, Dazed and Confused, and Slacker provide arguments for both perspectives.