Part of Remembering Babyn Yar: A Curated Film Series Marking the 85th Anniversary of the Babyn Yar Massacre — view full programme
Synopsis
An adaptation of the novella of the same name by Borys Horbatov about the "heroic life and struggle" of the Donbas during the German occupation. The family of factory master Taras Yatsenko cannot evacuate the city due to the illness of his granddaughter, Mariyka. Taras himself is confident that everything will soon pass—one must only wait and not submit to the enemy. Nevertheless, the reality of war shatters all attempts to distance oneself from the conflict, drawing more and more people around Yatsenko into its whirlpool.
Published in 1943, the novella The Unvanquished offered what would soon become the dominant framework for interpreting military action and occupation through the categories of hero, traitor, and victim. Unsurprisingly, the work was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946.
Donskoy's film—part of his popular wartime screen adaptations—goes even further. It transforms a specific geographical location (Luhansk Oblast) into an abstract-epic space of Soviet heroism while remaining completely insensitive to the nuances of human identity. The portrayal of this space culminates in the mass shooting scene of Jewish people, iconographically identical to the events at Babyn Yar in Kyiv—historically the first cinematic depiction of this tragedy on screen.
The film, which received a special mention at the 7th Venice International Film Festival (1946), has unfortunately become relevant once again due to the Russian war in Ukraine, which began in those very same Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Furthermore, it revisits the theme of the "hero-traitor-victim" discourse, which remains vital in our current context. Interestingly, one of the independent Ukrainian films about the war and Roman Shukhevych was directed by Oles Yanchuk in 2000 under the title The Undefeated (Neskoreni).
Also known internationally as The Unvanquished.
Remembering Babyn Yar: A Curated Film Series Marking the 85th Anniversary of the Babyn Yar Massacre
The program comprises two films that represent the complex cinematic memory of Babyn Yar from different historical periods and contexts. Both address fundamental questions concerning the representability of the Holocaust and the role of testimony.
Both screenings will be accompanied by discussions with experts: Irine Beridze (University of Potsdam, literary and film scholar), Anna Onufriienko (a cultural studies researcher, film historian, and curator specializing in Soviet cinema, visual propaganda, and cinematic representations of the Donbas region), and Bozhena Kozakevych (Historian, research associate for the German-Polish House at the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe).
Presented in cooperation between the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin and the University of Potsdam's Institute of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies (Department of German-Jewish Literature).
Admission is free of charge. Registration is required via the registration link.
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