Songs of Slow Burning Earth

Olha Zhurba: Songs of Slow Burning Earth (UA/DK/SE/FR 2024).

Language: Ukrainian

Screened with English subtitles at Ukrainian Film Days, Helsinki, Orion, 9 Nov 2024.

Vimeo screener viewed at home 9 Nov 2024.

AA: Olha Zhurba's Songs of Slow Burning Earth is a quietly devastating poetic documentary anthology about the Russo-Ukrainian war that started in 2014 following Ukraine's Revolution with Russia's clandestine attack on Crimea and Donbas and escalated into Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainian war films such as 20 Days in Mariupol, We Will Not Fade Away and Invisible Battalion have pursued their testimonies with vigorous energy and all-encompassing dignity more than compensating their low-definition visual qualities.

Distinctions of Songs of Slow Burning Earth include a high visual quality and an exquisite sense of composition. It is a lyrical masterpiece that registers the acute horror of a devastation that all but transcends the limits of normal experience and understanding. But the greatest distinction of Olha Zhurba's work is that it is an act of such transcendence.

It is divided into chapters that might work as independent short films but grow into an organic whole. I am reminded of Roberto Rossellini's Paisà, perhaps the greatest war film ever made, competing for a Finnish viewer with the first film adaptation of The Unknown Soldier.

The chapters include (the titles are mine): - the un-world of war - evacuees at a Kyiv railway station and on the road - the brutality of the war in testimonies of the evacuees and at the emergency call center - food aid at the bread factory at Mykolaiv - children's drawing lesson at an elementary school - the winter journey of a funeral procession: a long ride along a country highway of a truck carrying the coffin of a war hero, people by the roadside joining in holy commemoration, the camera mostly registering everything in a forward tracking shot through the windshield - the landscape after the battle: cleaning it from junk and wreckage - children playing war games - the coroner's office: the arduous task of the identification of corpses - rehabilitation center ("the superhuman center"): war invalids with leg prostheses, exercises in wheelchairs, learning to walk again - the Motherland Monument in Kyiv: removing the hammer and sickle marker - a high school in Ukraine: how do you see the future? - military drill at a Russian school to the tune of "The Persistent Soldier" - sunset on a foggy night.

Common to all Ukrainian war films I have seen is a talent in catching the immediate experience and a negative aesthetics: portraying the anti-life, the anti-beautiful.

Yet like all Ukrainian war films I have seen this is also a work of hope and dignity. Also a manifestation of determination and resilience.

...

VIMEO: SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH

Docudays UA

An audiovisual diary of Ukraine’s immersion into the abyss of the first two years of Russia's full invasion, made up of places, occasional characters, rare dialogues, intraframe sounds and silences which, when put together, capture the chronology of how the war became normalised. Against the backdrop of this (meta)physical landscape of collective disaster, a new generation of Ukrainians aspires to imagine the future.

Director and writer Olha Zhurba

Cinematographers Volodymyr Usyk, Viacheslav Tsvetkov, Misha Lubarsky

Editor Michael Aaglund

Music Yaroslav Tatarchenko (bunht)

Sound Pavlo Melnyk

Producer Darya Bassel (Moon Man / Ukraine)

Co-producers Anne Köhncke (Final Cut for Real / Denmark), Kerstin Übelacker (We Have a Plan / Sweden)

Uploaded on 13. kesäk. 2024 at 23.02

UKRAINIAN FILM DAYS (HELSINKI 2024)

SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH

Ukraina, Tanska, Ruotsi, Ranska, 2024

UKRAINIAN FILM DAYS

Alkuperäinen nimi:Songs of Slow Burning Earth

Ohjaaja:Olha Zhurba

Ikäraja:18

Maa:Ukraina, Tanska, Ruotsi, Ranska

Valmistumisvuosi:2024

Ensi-ilta:9.11.2024

Kesto:95 min

Tekstitys:english

Elokuvan maailman ensiesitys tapahtui tämän vuoden syyskuussa Venetsian kansainvälisellä elokuvafestivaalilla. “Songs of Slow Burning Earth” heijastaa havainnot sodan normalisoitumisesta. Venäjän hyökkäyksen ensimmäisten viikkojen paniikki- ja kauhusoinnut muuttuvat hitaasti kuoleman ja tuhon hyväksymisen tunnottomiksi hiljaisuuksiksi, joista tulee lopulta traaginen normaalisuus paikalliselle väestölle, mutta vain jälkiajattelu muulle maailmalle. Kollektiivisen katastrofin (meta)fyysisen maiseman taustalla ukrainalaisten uusi sukupolvi haluaa kuvitella tulevaisuutta.

Näytöstä seuraa 40 minuutin Q&A Olha Zhurban kanssa.

***

The world premiere of the film took place this September at the Venice International Film Festival. ”Songs of the Slowly Burning Earth” are reflections on the topic of the normalization of war. The ragged chords of panic and terror of the first weeks of the Russian invasion slowly transform into a numb silence of acceptance of death and destruction. In the end, it becomes a tragic norm for local population, and for the rest of the world – something secondary. Against the background of the (meta)physical landscape of a collective catastrophe, a new generation of Ukrainians seeks to imagine the future.

The screening will be followed by a 40-min Q&A with Olha Zhurba.

Nevydymyi batalyon / Invisible Battalion

Iryna Tsilyk, Svitlana Lischynska, and Alina Gorlova: Невидимий батальйон / Nevydymyi batalyon / Invisible Battalion (UA  2017).

Невидимий батальйон

Nevydymyi batalyon - istorii nashih zhinovi na vijni

Invisible Battalion - The Stories of Our Women at War

    UA © 2017 Institut Genderyh Program. PC: Tabor Productions.

    D: Iryna Tsilyk, Svitlana Lischynska, and Alina Gorlova. Cin: Oleksyi Kuchma, Denis Lushchik, Serhiy Morgunov, Vyacheslav Tsvetkov (as Slava Tsvetkov), Petro Tsymbal. M: Ptakh Jung, Mykhailo Nikolayev. S: Yasul Yavtushenko. ED: Max Milin. 
    Featuring: Olena Bilozerska, Yulia Matvienko, Yulia Paievska, Andriana Susak, Oksana Yakubova, Daria Zubenko

    89 min

    Language: Ukrainian

    Ukrainian premiere: 17 Nov 2017.

    Screened with English subtitles in Ukrainian Film Days, Helsinki, Orion, 8 Nov 2024

    Vimeo screener viewed at home 9 Nov 2024.

AA: A non-fiction survey of the first years (2014-2017) of the Russo-Ukrainian war following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity. Without a declaration of war, Russia attacks Crimea and launches the Donbas War.

Directed by Iryna Tsilyk, Svitlana Lischynska, and Alina Gorlova, Invisible Battalion is the story of the indispensable contribution of women to the defense of Ukraine.

For a Finnish viewer, it is a parallel work to the opening film of the 2024 Ukrainian Film Days, Taru Mäkelä's Lotat / Women in War (FI 1995). Like in Finland in WWII, women in Ukraine contribute to the defense as cooks, seamstresses, cleaners, accountants and in reconnaissance. But in Ukraine, they also participate in actual combat, in defiance of the legislation.

Taru Mäkelä told the stories of five women veterans. In Invisible Battalian, there are six, Olena Bilozerska, Yulia Matvienko, Yulia Paievska, Andriana Susak, Oksana Yakubova and Daria Zubenko, whose stories we hear and see in first person narratives. Their tasks: paramedic, sniper, major. 

The heaviest burden falls on Oksana Yakubova, Major, responsible for sending soldiers to almost certain death. "Surviving after war is more difficult than war". She is suffering from an acute PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome), attempting in therapy to wash the shock images of war from her memory and fending off suicidal thoughts.

Andriana Susak got pregnant during the war and returned with her husband from the front on the fourth month of pregnancy. She tells about a fellow combatant who jumped from the 16th floor the year before because of PTSD. "Our entire nation has PTSD".

The film was produced by an advocacy organization for women's rights, promoting equality in the military, resisting a pervasive belittling of women.

The "you are there" atmosphere is compelling.

Iryna Tsilyk, Svitlana Lischynska, and Alina Gorlova: Невидимий батальйон / Nevydymyi batalyon / Invisible Battalion (UA  2017).

INVISIBLE BATTALIOIN: OFFICIAL PRESENTATION

“I know a girl who dragged the injured away from the battlefield under fire in Ilovaisk when most men were hiding in a cellar. If a woman, mother, sister or daughter, wishes to protect our values and our territory, then nobody can prohibit that to her.”

Invisible Battalion consists of six stories of servicewomen told by three Ukrainian film directors: Iryna Tsilyk, Svitlana Lischynska, and Alina Gorlova. The film protagonists are different by their life experience, age, military, and civil professions, but all of them were united by this war, and their stories create a panoramic picture of the woman’s status in the Armed Forces. Maria Berlinska, the film producer, speaks about the project goal, “First, to document the history that’s happening here and now, to show how women fight. Second, to break down this wall for women. This cannot be about either gender or eye color, only education, only professionalism, and skill. Films are a good instrument that can be used to explain these things to society. And, finally, the third goal, which is very important for me. We are losing the informational war in the world. With this documentary, we want to show that it’s not a civil conflict that we have here, it’s Russian occupation, for the fourth year in a row. The world will see in our film how our women die and get injured, how they fight and win the battles with the Russian army. And we do not need their deep concerns, we need real support.”

The documentary was premiered on TV on October 16, 2017, on national Channel 1+1, and later premiered at Oskar Cinema on November 24, 2017. 

The documentary has already been screened around the world, in particular in Shanghai, Milan, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New York, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, as well as at the Parliament of Canada and UN Security Council.

Invisible Battalion raises active discussion on the rights of women in the security and defense sector, stimulating governmental authorities to reform the legislation left over from the Soviet times. In particular, in June 2016, under the pressure of public opinion, the Ministry of Defense expanded the list of battle positions available for women by 63 positions. The heroines of Invisible Battalion have also become cultural ambassadors of Ukraine, and through their stories, they tell the international community about the great threat of the Russian aggression, and that Ukraine is currently protecting not just its own territories but also democratic values in general, this is why it is a reliable ally and partner.

Partners: Canada-Ukraine International Assistance Fund (Canada), Razom (USA)

...

INFO AT UKRAINIAN FILM DAYS, 8 NOV 2024

INVISIBLE BATTALION

Ukraine, 2017

Alkuperäinen nimi: Невидимий батальйон

Englanninkielinen nimi: INVISIBLE BATTALION

Ohjaaja: Alina Horlova, Svitlana Lishchynska, Iryna Tsylyk

Ikäraja: 18

Maa: Ukraine

Valmistumisvuosi: 2017

Kesto: 90 min

Kieli: ukraina

Tekstitys: englanti

ILMAINEN SISÄÄNPÄÄSY / FREE ADMISSION

Ensimmäinen dokumenttielokuva ukrainalaisten naissotilaiden panoksesta taistelussa venäjän aggressiota vastaan. Koostuu kuuden asepalveluksessa olevan naisen tarinasta. Päähenkilöt eroavat toisistaan niin elämänkokemuksensa, ikänsä, sotilas- ja siviiliammattinsa puolesta, mutta sota yhdistää heitä kaikkia. Heidän tarinoidensa kautta silmiemme eteen avautuu kuva naisen asemasta Ukrainan asevoimissa venäjän hyökkäyksen jälkeen vuonna 2014, jolloin naiset joutuivat muuttamaan vanhaa neuvostoliiton jälkeistä lainsäädäntöä.

Näytöstä seuraa 40 minuutin Q&A.

***

The first documentary film about the contribution of Ukrainian military women to the fight against Russian aggression. It consists of the stories of six women in military service. The main characters differ from each other in life experience, age, military and civilian professions, but they are all united by the war. Through their stories, a picture of the position of women in the Ukrainian Armed Forces opens before the eyes after the Russian invasion in 2014, when women had to change the old post-Soviet legislation.