Crisis, Subjectivity, and Mythmaking in Recent Ukrainian Cinema

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Driven by the need to respond to Russia’s military interventions and boosted by the support of new cultural institutions, Ukrainian cinema has blossomed since 2014, becoming an important venue for political, cultural, and artistic discussions. This panel examines the myths and ideological touchstones that contemporary Ukrainian filmmakers either question or replicate and the artistic choices they make as they seek to counteract the divisive effects of Russian cultural influence in their country and reflect critically on how the ongoing conflict shapes Ukraine’s emerging civil society. Yuliya Ladygina considers how Akhtem Seitablaev negotiates canonical tropes and narrative devices to confront the realities of the Donbas war, commenting on how it redefines Ukrainian subjectivity in his 2017 blockbuster Cyborgs: Heroes Never Die. Oleksandra Wallo discusses Natalia Vorozhbyt’s directorial debut, Bad Roads (2020), focusing on the narrative and cinematic means it employs to construct an emotionally gripping and visually powerful story about the civilians’ experience of war and displacement. Vitaly Chernetsky explores Oleh Sentsov’s Rhinoceros, conceived before his arrest by the Russian forces in 2014 but completed in 2021. This film offers the story of one troubled man’s personal quest for an ethical and meaningful life against the background of corruption and violence as a parable of the country’s difficult journey towards finding its new place in the world in the aftermath of violent trauma. Together, these papers seek to contribute to a larger conversation about the role of cinema in the ongoing transformations of Ukrainian subjectivity and civic society.

Sub Unit

• Cinema/Television/Electronic Media

Chair

• Oleh Kotsyuba, Harvard U

Papers

• Cyber-hybridity and the New Kind of War in Akhtem Seitablaiev’s Cyborgs - Yuliya V. Ladygina, Pennsylvania State U

• Natalia Vorozhbyt’s Bad Roads: From a Play to an Award-Winning Film - Oleksandra Wallo, U of Kansas

• A Sinner’s Quest: Oleh Sentsov’s Rhinoceros as a Reflection of Post-Soviet Ukraine - Vitaly Chernetsky, U of Kansas

Discussant

• Yuliya Ilchuk, Stanford U