XIV International Human Rights Film Festival Docudays UA has started in Kyiv on March, 24. Despite the fact that the key topic of this year is ecology, issues of freedom of movement and migration are represented in some films as well proving that the topic is universal and inevitable in modern world.
“Europe without barriers” has collected 9 fest films about migrants, travels and refugees to be screened in Kyiv in next days, sorted by date of screening.
All details about film and schedule you can find on festival’s site.
Saturday, March, 25
15:00
Cinema House, Blue Hall
Lithuania, Chile; 26 minutes
Josebe (88) lives in a nursing home in Chile. She’s obsessed with knowing where the rest of the elderly people she lives with come from. Everyone tells her that they are Chilean, not Spanish like her. Josebe insists on thinking about her youth in the Basque Country. After a full year of living in that house, she struggles to remember that she is living in a nursing home. After 70 years in Chile, she still vividly remembers her homeland.
South Africa; 30 minutes
This is a split-screen film focused on material culture, specifically that of three long-term Zimbabwean female migrants currently residing in Cape Town, South Africa. Through an exploration of the objects they brought with them, the objects sent back to their homeland, the objects left behind and their associated memories, stories of joy, loss, and hopes for a return to Zimbabwe are examined.
Entry: 20 hryvnyas (for both films)
Also screened on Sunday, March 26, 12:00, Kyiv Cinema, Cinematheque
15:00
Cinema House, Red Hall
Russia, 70 minutes
The main character, the migrant worker Farrukh, lives in a trailer on the outskirts of Moscow together with his family – his father, mother and brothers – and has to take on any job that could earn him some money. But that is not the reason he left Tajikistan, his wife and small children. Farrukh wants to be an actor, a famous actor… Farrukh is swept into a whirlpool of conflicting circumstances – dreams of making it on the big screen, living the life of an illegal alien and the traditions of a Muslim family, which call on him to comply with the laws of the Quran. Some day Farrukh will have to make a choice…
Entry: 20 hryvnyas
Also screened on Sunday, March 26, 10:00, Cinema House, Red Hall, Free entry
Sunday, March 26
10:00
Cinema House, Red Hall
Russia, 70 minutes
The main character, the migrant worker Farrukh, lives in a trailer on the outskirts of Moscow together with his family – his father, mother and brothers – and has to take on any job that could earn him some money. But that is not the reason he left Tajikistan, his wife and small children. Farrukh wants to be an actor, a famous actor… Farrukh is swept into a whirlpool of conflicting circumstances – dreams of making it on the big screen, living the life of an illegal alien and the traditions of a Muslim family, which call on him to comply with the laws of the Quran. Some day Farrukh will have to make a choice…
Free entry
12:00
Kyiv Cinema, Cinematheque
Lithuania, Chile; 26 minutes
Josebe (88) lives in a nursing home in Chile. She’s obsessed with knowing where the rest of the elderly people she lives with come from. Everyone tells her that they are Chilean, not Spanish like her. Josebe insists on thinking about her youth in the Basque Country. After a full year of living in that house, she struggles to remember that she is living in a nursing home. After 70 years in Chile, she still vividly remembers her homeland.
South Africa; 30 minutes
This is a split-screen film focused on material culture, specifically that of three long-term Zimbabwean female migrants currently residing in Cape Town, South Africa. Through an exploration of the objects they brought with them, the objects sent back to their homeland, the objects left behind and their associated memories, stories of joy, loss, and hopes for a return to Zimbabwe are examined.
Free entry
15:00
Cinema House, Red Hall
Sweden, 54 minutes
A Yazidi refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan is home tomore than 20,000 refugees, many of whom are victims of terrorist attacks by ISIS. Shilan is a young Kurdish nurse who volunteered to take care of them. Every tent in the camp has a story, and Shilan takes the responsibility of hearing the refugees out, empathising with the pain they are suffering. One day Shilan hears about a tent where a woman is refusing to eat her food or have any sort of contact with the outside. She decides to take action.
Entry: 20 hryvnyas
Also screened on Monday, March, 27, 10:00, Cinema House, Red Hall, Free entry
20:30
South Korea, 70 minutes, Cinema House, Blue Hall
Documentary devoted to North Korean defectors’ human rights. For the past 11 years, the crew have struggled to include the reality as they accompany the smuggling of North Korean refugees and live together in the border towns of China and North Korea. As a result, they succeeded in capturing vividly the scenes of smuggling of North Korean refugees, trafficking situation of North Korean women, and drug trafficking in conspiracy with North Korean soldiers, with their cameras. They also peeked at the lives of North Korean women who were sold to Chinese farms.
Free entry
Monday, March 27
10:00
Cinema House, Red Hall
Sweden, 54 minutes
A Yazidi refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan is home tomore than 20,000 refugees, many of whom are victims of terrorist attacks by ISIS. Shilan is a young Kurdish nurse who volunteered to take care of them. Every tent in the camp has a story, and Shilan takes the responsibility of hearing the refugees out, empathising with the pain they are suffering. One day Shilan hears about a tent where a woman is refusing to eat her food or have any sort of contact with the outside. She decides to take action.
Free entry
Tuesday, March 28
15:00
Finland, Bulgaria; 88 minutes, Cinema House, Red Hall
A small and stubborn Bulgarian village facing the Turkish border has been resisting foreign invaders since the times of the Roman and Ottoman Empires. Now its electorate of 38 elderly Bulgarians is deciding thefuture of Europe. Postman Ivan has a new political vision. He decides to run for mayor to bring the dying village to life by welcoming refugees. His opponents want either to close their eyes or close down the border and reintroduce Communism. Busy on the campaign trail while delivering the mail, Ivan soon learns that while good intentions are not enough, even the smallest deeds matter.
Entry: 20 hryvnyas
Also screened on Wednesday, March, 29, 10:00, Cinema House, Red Hall, Free entry
15:00
The World We Live In: Wandering Workers in Germany
Germany, 16 minutes, Cinema House, Blue Hall
Several cases of labour exploitation concerning migrant workers from Eastern European countries have become publicly known. The film portrays the life of three migrant workers: a construction worker from Bulgaria who lives on the streets of Frankfurt collecting bottles for a living; a woman from Romania who shares a hotel room with her daughters, everyday she goes out to find work; and a retiree from Bulgaria who drives a truck and has been on the road for four months to support his family back home. Their daily lives are determined by bleak monotony and social isolation, and yet they have not abandoned their hope for a better life.
Entry: 20 hryvnyas (screened along with two more short films – Rakijada and Dead Ears)
Also screened on Wednesday, March, 29, 12:00, Kyiv Cinema, Cinemateque, Free entry
17:00
Cinema House, Red Hall
When Paul Came Over the Sea – Journal of an Encounter
Germany, 97 minutes
Paul has made his way from his home in Cameroon across the Sahara to the Moroccan coast, where he now lives in a forest waiting for the right moment to cross the Mediterranean. This is where he meets Jakob, a filmmaker from Berlin, who is filming along Europe’s borders. Soon afterwards, Paul manages to cross over to Spain on a rubber boat. He survives – but half of his companions die on this tragic 50-hour odyssey. Held for two months in a deportation centre, upon his release Paul meets Jakob again at a shelter for migrants in Southern Spain. When Paul decides to continue on to Germany, Jakob has to make a choice: will he become an active part of Paul’s pursuit of a better life, or remain a detached documentary filmmaker?
Q&A with the director after film
Entry: 20 hryvnyas
Also screened on Wednesday, March, 29, 12:00, Cinema House, Red Hall, Free entry
Wednesday, March 29
10:00
Finland, Bulgaria; 88 minutes, Cinema House, Red Hall
A small and stubborn Bulgarian village facing the Turkish border has been resisting foreign invaders since the times of the Roman and Ottoman Empires. Now its electorate of 38 elderly Bulgarians is deciding thefuture of Europe. Postman Ivan has a new political vision. He decides to run for mayor to bring the dying village to life by welcoming refugees. His opponents want either to close their eyes or close down the border and reintroduce Communism. Busy on the campaign trail while delivering the mail, Ivan soon learns that while good intentions are not enough, even the smallest deeds matter.
Free entry
12:00
Cinema House, Red Hall
When Paul Came Over the Sea – Journal of an Encounter
Germany, 97 minutes
Paul has made his way from his home in Cameroon across the Sahara to the Moroccan coast, where he now lives in a forest waiting for the right moment to cross the Mediterranean. This is where he meets Jakob, a filmmaker from Berlin, who is filming along Europe’s borders. Soon afterwards, Paul manages to cross over to Spain on a rubber boat. He survives – but half of his companions die on this tragic 50-hour odyssey. Held for two months in a deportation centre, upon his release Paul meets Jakob again at a shelter for migrants in Southern Spain. When Paul decides to continue on to Germany, Jakob has to make a choice: will he become an active part of Paul’s pursuit of a better life, or remain a detached documentary filmmaker?
Free entry
12:00
The World We Live In: Wandering Workers in Germany
Germany, 16 minutes, Cinema House, Blue Hall
Several cases of labour exploitation concerning migrant workers from Eastern European countries have become publicly known. The film portrays the life of three migrant workers: a construction worker from Bulgaria who lives on the streets of Frankfurt collecting bottles for a living; a woman from Romania who shares a hotel room with her daughters, everyday she goes out to find work; and a retiree from Bulgaria who drives a truck and has been on the road for four months to support his family back home. Their daily lives are determined by bleak monotony and social isolation, and yet they have not abandoned their hope for a better life.
Screened along with two more short films – Rakijada and Dead Ears
Free entry
21:00
Ukraine, 25 minutes
Cinema House, Red Hall
The film consists of true stories of Ukrainian migrant women in Europe, who tell us why they made their decisions to move and what their motivation was. Is the grass really always greener on the other side? And what is home, after all – is it four walls and a roof above your head, or a view from your window, a bench in the park, the smell of the city in the spring? Is it a place of strength which gives you a feeling of security and comfort, or is it a space that allows you to realise your creative ambition, or is it a person who accepts you as you are? Together with the protagonists, we move there and back again, between home and not-home, between the past and the present, between Ukraine and not-Ukraine, immersing ourselves in their worldviews and testing our own.
Entry: 20 hryvnyas (screened along with two more short films – Home Games and Refuge)
Q&A with the directors after film
Also screened on Tuesday, March, 30, 11:00, Cinema House, Blue Hall, Free entry
Tuesday, March 30
Ukraine, 25 minutes
Cinema House, Red Hall
The film consists of true stories of Ukrainian migrant women in Europe, who tell us why they made their decisions to move and what their motivation was. Is the grass really always greener on the other side? And what is home, after all – is it four walls and a roof above your head, or a view from your window, a bench in the park, the smell of the city in the spring? Is it a place of strength which gives you a feeling of security and comfort, or is it a space that allows you to realise your creative ambition, or is it a person who accepts you as you are? Together with the protagonists, we move there and back again, between home and not-home, between the past and the present, between Ukraine and not-Ukraine, immersing ourselves in their worldviews and testing our own.
Screened along with two more short films – Home Games and Refuge
Q&A with the directors after film
Free entry
Main photo: screen fron The Return