Authors

Discussion

The Post-Maidan Ukrainian cinematography creates a new visual narrative of the Ukrainian history. The idea of re-thinking of history of the land, re-telling the cultural and historical heritage of contemporary Ukraine is clearly dominating among the other components. This cultural message of visualizing the lost/forbidden history is clearly presented in newly released films as “Viddana”/ “Devoted” (2020), “Hutsulka Ksenya” (2019) etc. More than 100 years after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, contemporary Ukrainian films are visualizing the history of the western part of Ukraine as a territory of that empire . The idea of “felix Austria” is bringing a question of the lost during the Soviet time European identity  into the modern society and reveals the problem of forgotten and forbidden cultural narratives. “Viddana” depicts the daily life in Stanislaviv (which a century later became a center for “Stanislav Phenomenon” in Ukrainian culture) and raises the question of unspoken past. The question of migration from Galicia to the USA (“Hutsulka Ksenya”) reveals the problem of the broken connections between the families, and the forbidden in soviet time discussion about the cultural heritage of the Western part of Ukraine. Through their sceneries and stories, visual effects and colorful narrations, these films produce a powerful message in a process of building a modern Ukrainian cultural identity.