WEBZINE ACC

The 14th Gwangju Biennale Ukrainian Pavilion, Ukraine: The Territory of Freedom can be seen at ACC Theater 3. The pavilion, jointly hosted by the Gwangju Biennale and the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Korea, is held from Apr. 7 to Jul. 9, 2023 (Open on Saturdays excl. May 20) and plays the following three modern movies.

〈Carol of The Bells〉

〈Mariupol. Unlost Hope〉

〈Toloka〉

〈Toloka〉 (2019) is an adaptation of the poem written by a renowned Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. The movie is about a girl who deceives her suitors to save her loved one and gets punished by destiny. 〈Mariupol. Unlost Hope〉 (2022) shows the real story happened in Mariupol sealed off for a month after invasion of Russia from a war victim’s point of view. 〈Carol of The Bells〉 (2021) is a story of three families (Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish) whose peaceful lives are shattered by the war. However, they do not lose their hope, singing 〈Carol of the Bells〉 adapted from a popular Ukrainian folk melody.

〈Mariupol. Unlost Hope〉

The movies played under the title of Ukraine: The Territory of Freedom talk about Ukrainian ethnicity, history, legacy, and freedom. Today, I would like to introduce the most impressive movie for me, 〈Mariupol. Unlost Hope〉 (2022).

The running time of the movie is 62 minutes. I was holding my breath all the time. Its deep, heartbreaking story made my act of writing endlessly light. The movie starts with a comment by the director Maksim Litvinov, “What are we fighting for?”

〈Mariupol. Unlost Hope〉

Focus on the fact that the director referred to the movie as a “crime movie” instead of a “war movie.” The Russian forces’ bombardment and massacre against civilians are crimes in contravention of international law. The director tries to widely inform of the current situation victims of the war crimes are experiencing and urges global citizens’ sympathy and unity through the movie.

This movie depicts the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War which started on Feb. 24, 2022 with invasion of Russia, with the focus on the war crimes, from innocent Ukrainian civilians’ point of view. The movie shows how their lives were destroyed in an instant. Learning about the war through a documentary film instead of news makes you look at victims of the war crimes more deeply. In addition, it helps you understand that it is not a story of a far country but your own story and the story of the human race.

Peaceful and prosperous Mariupol became full of terror in the blink of an eye. Numerous buildings such as hospitals, theaters, concert halls, and houses collapsed due to bombardment and their exteriors were scorched. People were preparing for their deaths, not knowing when their houses will be bombarded.

Nadia Sukhorukova served as a narrator in this film. She is a journalist who wrote about the one-month siege of Mariupol. She kept a diary everyday during the siege. She managed to escape from Mariupol and informed of the situations of the city via social media to raise attention to the war.

The documentary film shows the interviews with three female survivors. One of them barely survived after giving birth to her child at a gynecology clinic destroyed by bombardment. Another victim lost her house and job. The last interviewee lost her son and family in front of her eyes when her house was bombarded. The film conveys their vivid testimonies about their efforts to protect their remaining families in underground bunkers.

〈Mariupol. Unlost Hope〉

The movie shows the process of Mariupol being drawn on a canvas between the scenes of the survivors’ testimonies from the start to the end. The director decided to show Mariupol as paintings because it was too awful to show countless casualties as they were.

On the canvas, the artist first shows the beautiful city full of splendid heritage. Then, the drawing is painted over, showing Mariupol turning into ruins. Broken windows, burnt buildings, and unburied bodies are depicted with black brush strokes.

After the survivors’ testimonies, the black ruins begin to be erased. The traces of the war are all removed and the movie shows again the beautiful city before the war. It seems to symbolize that freedom and hope are reborn even in the middle of crimes, ruins, destruction, and the war that took everything away.

One of the survivors in the movie says that she will go back to Mariupol and contribute to restoring the city after the war ends. Although everything was destroyed, Ukrainians didn’t lose their spirit and hope to restore the city and their legacy.

I was nervous during the entire movie. What if everything gets destroyed over one night's sleep? Just imagining such a situation makes me painful. It is known that war victims cannot sleep properly. They do not want to experience the fear of facing hopeless reality after having a sweet dream. They fear not being able to wake up the next morning. Our situation is not that different. It could happen to everyone anywhere and at any time. We cannot assure that we are safe.

What are we fighting for? The question mentioned at the beginning of the movie makes you think about lots of things. What should we do to avoid facing repeated, awful history?

I wish them freedom more than anything.

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