– Still home: Ukrainian films from the occupied territories – Maksym Nakonechny’s feature film debut “Butterfly Vision” successfully positions itself amidst a wave of new Ukrainian films about the war and shows a female face.
Still home: Ukrainian films from the occupied territories
The Netzwerk Filmkultur NRW has put together the Ukrainian film series “Still Home: Ukrainian Films from occupied Territories” with financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW. This film series will be shown at various venues in North Rhine-Westphalia from December 2022 to the end of 2023. The filmclub münster is showing two films from this series, PUSHING BOUNDARIES and BUTTERFLY VISION.
The curators Anna Melikova and Victoria Leshchenko have selected works by filmmakers whose films bear witness to the changes in the country in recent years. The curation focuses on films from the territories occupied by Russia in order to emphasise that the people and their cultural identity are still Ukrainian despite everything.
To the NRW Film Culture Network
About the project Still Home: Ukrainian films from the occupied territory
To the film
Lilia spent months in Russian captivity in the eastern Ukrainian Donbass region. Now the Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance specialist, codenamed Butterfly, has finally been allowed to return home as part of an exchange programme.
Aerial reconnaissance specialist Lilya returns from Russian captivity in the eastern Ukrainian Donbass region to the area controlled by Ukraine. Her liberation is discussed in the chats: “an indomitable woman”, “she has balls of steel”, “where is her beautiful hair?”. When asked by a journalist how she was treated in captivity, Lilya replies: “Different, but mostly normal.” And smiles.
She is celebrated as a heroine. However, she herself does not feel much like celebrating: the wounds she suffered during her captivity are too deep. After a medical examination, it emerges that she is a hero: While she is still struggling to regain control of her own life, a new one is already growing inside her.
Tuesday, 28 March | Cinema | 18:00
