A series of online film screenings for students of the Mariupol State University took place on 8-11 December within the 19th Travelling Docudays UA. In 2022, the University was transferred to Kyiv due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Many students are forced to stay abroad.

Hryhorii Kurachytskyi, the regional coordinator of Travelling Docudays UA in Donetsk region, tells more about online screenings for MSU students.

Due to the full-scale invasion and occupation of Mariupol by the Russian Federation, students of the Mariupol State University were evacuated from their hometown. Now they are in different countries of the world. The University staff was transferred to Kyiv; the studying process is conducted remotely.

The idea to organise documentary film weekend for MSU students emerged after holding the special edition of the 19th Docudays UA film weekend in Kyiv in November 2022.

In December, thanks to the 19th Travelling Docudays UA, students had the opportunity to watch Ukrainian documentaries from the programme of the Travelling Docudays UA in Donetsk region.

After the screenings, the students talked about their personal stories: how they manage to work and study while they are forced to stay abroad.

Each and every one of them is waiting to return to Mariupol.

Online screening within the 19th Travelling Docudays UA in Donetsk region

During the weekend, students saw several films:

The Last Generation, dir. Mikołaj Borowy. Amidst the climate crisis and predictions about the end of civilization, the film protagonist decides that this is the time for radical action and becomes an ecoactivist. Among the moonlike landscape of an open-pit coal mine, she realises how far she will go to stop this. From this moment, despair ends, and tactics begin.

Infinity According to Florian, dir. Oleksiy Radynski. The film seeks answers to the questions that troubled the legendary Kyiv architect Florian Yuriev for decades, and also tells about why the path of capitalism is over and exhausted, and what will happen if you divide the unit by infinity.

Peace and Tranquility, dir. Myro Klochko and Anatoliy Tatarenko. This is a screen version of the play by the famous playwright Andriy Bondarenko about the life of his family, which was cut short by the war. The film is, at the same time, a living emotional reaction to the present and the story of one family, written in the context of the history of Ukraine.

Mountains and Heaven in Between, dir. Dmytro Hreshko. The story of emergency medical workers who, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, encounter the everyday life of the mountain village of Kolochava in Transcarpathia.

The Bright Path, dir. Iryna Riabenka. The film tells the story of Stanislav Asieiev, who, in his peaceful life, created reports from his native Donetsk for various Ukrainian media, but was captured in 2017. He spent most of his 962 days in captivity in the Isolation Prison, which was once a cultural venue.

The organisers thank everyone involved in the event.

The screenings took place within the programme of the 19th Travelling Docudays UA in Donetsk region.

Author: Hryhorii Kurachytskyi, regional coordinator of Travelling Docudays UA in Donetsk region