May 17th – 21st
Photography poster by Sara Sahores
Kyiv Critics‘ Week is an international film festival created to introduce Ukrainian viewers to the best new films selected by professional Ukrainian film critics.
This year, KCW and De Balie have teamed up to bring hidden gems and the latest successes of Ukrainian cinema to Amsterdam. The program features specials centered around the theme of “Double Exposure: Ukraine in the 90s” and provides a platform for conversations about Ukraine’s past and present, moving beyond the omnipresent war reports and Soviet-era prejudices.
Double Exposure: Ukraine in the 90s
The 90s nostalgia is in full swing, with its fashion, music, and blockbuster remakes. But for Western Europe, this decade brought an utterly different experience than it did for the countries behind the ‘Iron Curtain’. Being haunted by the ghosts of the Soviet past, devastated by the decade’s omnipresent poverty and steep rise in crime, Ukraine was in the process of reinventing itself and gaining political agency.
“Double Exposure: Ukraine in the 90s” is a collaboration between De Balie and a group of Ukrainian film critics who are members of the curatorial team behind the renowned Ukrainian film festival – Kyiv Critics` Week (KCW). It presents a window into a little-discussed period of Ukrainian history in the West, as most of the talks and studies focus either on the Soviet period or the period after Euromaidan.
Between May 17th and 21st, we will showcase films either shot in 1990s Ukraine or depicting this period of national awakening, handpicked by Ukrainian critics Hanna Datsiuk, Serhii Ksaverov, Daria Badior, and our cinema curator. Each screening will be followed by a discussion between one of the KCW curators and a Dutch film critic, with the closing event featuring a live music performance revolving around the life and work of Sergei Parajanov.
In this way De Balie facilitates a space for conversation about the Ukrainian past and present beyond the omnipresent war-reports or Soviet era commonplaces. This space is introduced through screenings of hidden gems and newest successes of Ukrainian cinema.
The link between KCW and De Balie was facilitated by Tetiana Mala, an independent Ukrainian cultural worker, who also serves as the project manager for this collaboration.
Scroll down to see the full programme from May 17th – 21st .
Trailer Kyiv Critics’ Week
Screenings
Story of a young woman facing her parents’ painful divorce is placed against the authentic backdrop of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Part of Kyiv Critics’ Week x De Balie. After the film viewing we talk with Dutch film critic Ronald Glasbergen and Ukrainian film critic Daria Badior
Part of Kyiv Critics’ Week x De Balie. After the film viewing we talk with Ukrainian film critic Serhii Ksaverov and Dutch film critic Laura van Zuylen.
Richly ornamented story of the rise and fall of a petty gangster told in an unsentimental manner became the first Ukrainian film that tackles the anarchy and unlawfulness of the 90’s.
A turned inside-out cop thriller centering on the murder investigation of a high-ranking police officer in mid-90s Ukraine which led to the last death penalty executed in Ukraine.
Part of Kyiv Critics’ Week x De Balie. After the film viewing we talk with Ukrainian film critic Hanna Datsiuk and Dutch film critic Sjoerd van Wijk.
