Description

Join us for a two-day Ukrainian Film Festival co-sponsored by the Ukrainian Community of Western PA (UCOWPA) and the University of Pittsburgh (REEES Department).

Saturday, September 28th (doors open at 3:45pm):

4:00pm - The Guide: Early 1930s. Peter is a ten-year-old boy in the midst of turbulent Soviet Ukraine. His father, an American engineer, is killed for obtaining secret documents about the repressions, which now are hidden in Peter's book. The boy flees from the police with a blind kobzar (Ukrainian folk minstrel), Ivan Kocherga. Ivan does everything to help his young guide to grow up and survive with a kind and clear soul that will not be hardened by what his eyes have seen. He tells his young guide elaborate stories that make him believe there can be a different reality from what he sees around him. We are challenged to admit the blind kobzar may see the world with greater clarity than those with perfect eyes. (IMDb)

Won the Best Acting (Stanislav Boklan) and Cinematography (Sergey Mikhalchuk) Awards at the Odessa International Film Festival.

30-minute intermission

6:45pm - Ukrainian Sheriffs: There is often a lack of policemen in rural Ukrainian communities. The citizens of Stara Zburievka village have found a solution to this local problem. They chose two local men - the smartest and the strongest - to take care of the public order. Villagers give them power, a car, and shiny tokens and name them "Sheriffs". Sometimes wild and violent, but at other times awkward and funny, the Sheriffs' actions, according to the village community, are always fair. However, the recent political events taking place in Ukraine have changed the situation in Stara Zburievka village. Will the Sheriffs' activities, which started as a protest to the existing corrupted system, be able to cope with the new, complex and revolutionary transition? The UKRAINIAN SHERIFFS film is a kind, sometimes funny, but sometimes shocking story about average Ukrainians who take action and build their own, let's say idealistic, country model combining wildness and kindness, immorality and humanity. It is a film that by telling a story about one village, tells a story about the whole country.(IMDb)

Won the Jury Award in the Feature-Length Documentary section of the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.

These movies are presented in Ukrainian and Russian, with English subtitles.

Any unsold seats will be available for free to current University of Pittsburgh students who present a valid student ID at the door.