Germany to host Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin, featuring restored works by legendary director Serhii Paradzhanov

The fifth Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin will take place in the German capital from October 24 to 27, featuring the theme "The Art of Freedom." This year, the festival will also showcase two newly restored films by Serhii Paradzhanov.

The press service of the Ukrainian State Film Agency reported that.

The festival will showcase contemporary Ukrainian auteur films with a central theme of freedom from external control and internal constraints. It will also highlight decolonization efforts in Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries, like Armenia and Georgia.

The agency emphasized that the festival will also feature restored versions of Serhii Paradzhanov's iconic films "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" and "The Color of a Pomegranate." These showings will honor the director's 100th birthday.

In addition, this year's event includes a short film competition for the first time. The festival will open on October 23 with Maryna Stoianova's film "Fragments of Ice."

Program of feature films:

• "Editorial" by Roman Bondarchuk (with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency);
• "Steppe" by Marina Vroda (with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency);
• "I, Victory and Berlin" by Olha Riashyna (with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency);
• "Forever – Forever" by Anna Buriachkova (with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency);
• "Hotel "Metalurg" by Zhanna Nushi and Heorhiy Varsimashvili;
• "Mission 200" by Volodymyr Sidko;
• "Nice Ladies" by Mariia Ponomariova;
• "Kilometer" by Anna Tykha;
• "Mother and Daughter or the Night Is Never Complete" by Lana Gogoberidze;
• "A Little Stranger" by Svitlana Lishchynska;
• "Peaceful people" by Oksana Karpovych;
• "We, Our Pets and the War" by Anton Ptushkin;
• "Memory Photo" by Olha Chernykh;
• "Day as Day" by Roman Bazhan.

You can find out more about the program and schedule at the link.

For reference:

As Rubryka wrote, Serhii Paradzhanov is most renowned in Ukraine for his movie "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors," but he achieved global acclaim specifically for "The Color of Pomegranate." Due to Soviet censorship, the original version with excellent visual quality was lost for a considerable period. However, in 2014, the renowned American filmmaker Martin Scorsese restored this film. Now, Ukrainian audiences can watch this edition of the movie.

It is worth adding that the film "The Color of a Pomegranate" was released in the Soviet Union twice in two different versions – "with censorship" and "with even greater censorship." The rest of the world could see the film only in pirated copies, as the Soviet authorities banned foreign film distribution. But none of these versions were original.

This version of the film premiered in 2014 at the Cannes Film Festival. It then screened at several other film festivals, including London, New York, and Toronto. At the latter, critic James Quandt described it as "the cinematic Holy Grail."

As Martin Scorsese presented the restored version of the film at the Toronto Film Festival, he told future audiences that they would see images and visions "that are almost unlike anything in the history of cinema."

To celebrate Serhii Paradzhanov's centenary, the restored version of his film "The Color of Pomegranate" will debut in Ukrainian cinemas. The film will be screened in 20 cities across Ukraine, and a complete list of participating cinemas can be found on the Arthouse Traffic website. This company was responsible for bringing the film to Ukraine.