Ukraine cinema

107 Mothers is a prison drama about women inmates in a Ukrainian jail. A Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Ukraine co-production, the film was directed by Peter Kerekes and is based on real-life stories of women jailed at Odessa Correctional Facility Number 74, one of two Ukrainian prisons where pregnant women can serve their sentences with their children.

Filmed in Switzerland by French director Elie Grappe, who co-wrote the story with Raphaëlle Desplechin, Swiss entry Olga is Grappe’s full-length feature film directorial debut. This 85-minute movie is the story of a teenage Ukrainian gymnast en route to the Olympics who is forced to leave her native country because of political unrest.

Much like the mystical island the film shares its name with Atlantis is a feat of cinema that is hard to come by. The story takes place in 2025, one year after the end of the devastating war in eastern Ukraine.

Tevye’s Daughters is a 2017 Ukrainian period melodrama directed by Vladimir Lert, a Latvian immigrant. Lert studied direction at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara while simultaneously attending the International Actors School founded by Soviet/Russian actor Alexander Kuznetsov.