The first film made following the nuclear meltdown accident at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, reactor 4, near Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, on the 26 April 1986, focuses on the immediate aftermath of the disaster and the cleanup effort.
Reflection on the way the Soviet production system turns workers themselves into commodities.
In the Volyn region, in a monastery of the XVI century, an old people’s home is located. However, mental patients and former criminals also live there.
A city symphony, whose protagonist is autumn Kyiv in the middle of the 1960s. The colours of the city are captured on the go, highlighted with jazz accents by composer Volodymyr Huba.
A protest on the occasion of the 3rd anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Writer Dmytro Pavlychko and Hero of the Soviet Union L. Telyatnikov speak. Among those present is the head of the Kyiv City Executive Committee V. Zgursky.
Documentary about the famous Ukrainian philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda, which was banned by Soviet censorship. The film only reached the screens 15 years later, during Perestroika era.
A documentary film about the construction of the first atomic power station in Soviet Ukraine in Chornobyl. In the film, schoolchildren, public servants and inhabitants of villages of the Chornobyl region try to answer the question "What is the atom?" Their naive and unsure answers illustrate the vague but decidedly trusting perception of the atomic phenomena. In Soviet cinema of the 1970s, the "production of drama" is popular, a genre in which factory or office routines are presented in a romantic light. The film uses all of these new aesthetic trends in a documentary approach. The ambitious construction plans of the power station are shown through a number of personal stories, one of them is about an engineer's dream of a river port in the "atomohrad", and river shuttles which will travel from Pripiat to Kyiv.
Short documentary dedicated to the life of the "young atomohrad" Pripiat, directly after operations began at the Chornobyl station in December 1977. This work is a triumphant overview of the results of the journey from the beginning of the power station's construction to its successful outcome. The builders and witnesses of the station's creation reminisce on the years of construction, which became a "school of life" for those involved. Doctors talk about the excellent ecological state of the environment near the station, youths ski in the nearby snowy woods. The "big happy family of the atomohrad" celebrate the New Year. Even in winter, these scenes are depicted in bright, saturated colors, with gentle reminders of the invisible work of the Atom, illustrated with glittering diagrammes, sensors and monitors of the station, all details emphasizing the joyful existence within the "Atomohrad".
Documentary about the destruction of the Wall of Memory, the monumental avant-garde reliefs at Kyiv crematorium that artists Ada Rybachuk and Volodymyr Melnichenko had been working on since 1968, after local authorities concreted them over in 1982.
A propaganda film about V. Hrabovenko who fought in Afghanistan. The hero of the film talks to passengers on the train while in his native village. The film shows a military hospital in Dushanbe (Tajik SSR), where the wounded V. Grabovenko was treated. Surgeon Y. Vorobiev gives an interview.
In November 1988, director Anatoly Syrykh met with Sergei Parajanov in Tbilisi to make a documentary about him. However, Parajanov was clearly not in the mood to talk about his art. As a compromise, Syrykh offers to talk about the artist and time. The tired, offended director of "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" forbids Syrykh to film him. He agrees only to speak, recalling the most unpleasant moments of his life.
At the time of its creation, this documentary had a great public resonance, as the director was one of the first to bring to the public the true information about the ecological consequences of the Chornobyl disaster and uncompromisingly publicize problematic issues. The film quickly went around the screens of the world and won awards at prestigious international festivals.
A documentary about the enthusiastic photographer Igor Kostin, who worked at the Chornobyl disaster site.
The film is about the villagers of the Chornobyl district of Kyiv region who return to their homes after being evacuated from the Chornobyl exclusion zone.
The film is about the consequences of the Chornobyl accident and the concealment of data on the true extent of the damage by the leaders of the medical system of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR. Interviews are conducted with P. Ramzaev, MD, M. Karpan, Deputy Chief Engineer of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and V. Kavun, First Secretary of the Zhytomyr Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. The program shows the examination of patients in the radiation pathology department of Kyiv Hospital No. 25 and the examination of cattle by radiobiologists in the Narodytsky district of Zhytomyr region. Scientific conference "Medical aspects of the Chornobyl accident" in Kyiv. Minister of Health of the USSR E.I. Chazov makes a speech.
In 1983, the documentary film "Soldier's Widows" was released on the screens of Ukraine, created by director Volodymyr Artemenko, whose father died at the front, and nine aunts remained widows. Based on real events, the picture about one small village of Melnyky in Cherkasy region, where a large number of widows lived, made a strong impression, because there were many such villages in Ukraine. At the Berlin Film Festival, one of the foreign film critics called Ukrainian widows the Madonnas of the 20th century.
The film is about the work of an amateur artist from the village Bolotnya, Ivankiv district, Kyiv region, Fedir Prymachenko, the son of the artist Maria Prymachenko. The artist's works from the series "Man on Earth" are demonstrated.
A documentary about Hryhoriy Havrylenko. After watching the film, Yuriy Illienko told the film's cameraman Volodymyr Pika: "Man, this is brilliant!".
