2022 Toronto Film Festival showcases Ukrainian filmmakers
In a show of support for the beleaguered state of Ukraine and its people, this year’s TIFF has chosen to provide space for Ukrainian stories and talent. The festival’s CEO explained, “Not only are we helping to put a spotlight on the stories this country has to offer, but we are standing in solidarity with Ukrainians both here at home and abroad.”
TIFF is also offering a free public screening of US-based director Evgeny Afineevsky’s documentary Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom, which follows the current war from the initial conflicts in the Donbas region in 2014, through the full-scale war of early 2022.
Supplementing the film screenings are two festival conferences relating to Ukraine, hosted by TIFF. They consist of a public meeting with Ukrainian filmmakers and producers; and a panel discussion, co-sponsored by the Ukrainian Film State Agency, entitled The Impact of the War in Ukraine on the International Film Industry, dealing with practical issues such as international collaborations as a way to overcome roadblocks in film production, and the question of producing art in the context of the war with Russia.
This year’s TIFF will host a delegation of Ukrainian film professionals. The festival is also screening a selection of Ukrainian-themed films among their official selections, including:
• Luxembourg, Luxembourg by writer/director Antonio Lukich, a comedy about two Ukrainian brothers trying to decide how to deal with their dying gangster father.
• Mariupolis 2, documentarian Mantas Kvedaravicius’ grim investigation of the chaos left behind by attacks on the city of Mariupolis, and the resilience of the people trying to survive in brutal and unpredictable conditions.
• Michal Vinik’s family drama, Valeria is Getting Married, a Ukraine/Israel collaboration about a Ukrainian family dealing with an increasingly complicated attempt to arrange a marriage for a younger daughter
• Victim, a Czech/Ukrainian crime drama and character study by director Michal Blasko, which deals with the politicisation of a mysterious assault on a teenaged boy.
• The war-related short film, Liturgy of Anti-Tank Obstacles, a Ukraine?US collaboration, was included in TIFF’s collection of shorts.
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