Description
What does it mean to move homeward when home has been occupied, transformed, or left behind? These films follow uncertain passages across physical, emotional, and temporal distances: a man chooses to remain in his threatened hometown; a son waits for news from his mother in occupied territory; a child attempts to return home through the mechanical body of a robotic dog; and a granddaughter reaches across decades to reconnect with a family history shaped by displacement and war. Homecoming is no longer a single movement toward a place, but a fragile negotiation between memory and absence, grief and continuity, those who remain, those who return, and those who can return only through remembrance.
Films in this programme
Homecoming
Roman Khimei, Yarema Malashchuk · Ukraine · 2026 · 19'
A few years after fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion, a boy returns home via a robotic dog, his mechanical avatar, which he controls from his room in Poland. Through this remote presence, he relives memories and reconnects with his past — a connection that now depends on a fragile video stream that could be cut off at any moment.
Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk
Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei are Ukrainian filmmakers and visual artists working since 2016 at the intersection of documentary and fiction. Their films explore post-imperial memory and the experience of a new generation shaped by war and history. They won the PinchukArtCentre Prize (2020) and VISIO Young Talent Prize (2021). Their short Additional Scenes received main awards at Tallinn Black Nights IFF 2024 and the Ukrainian Film Critics Award. Their video works are part of collections at Fondazione In Between Art Film, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Kontakt, TBA21, Frac Bretagne, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, and Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, among others. Their most recent installation was presented at Dare to Dream, a Collateral Event of the 60th La Biennale di Venezia 2024.
Unavailable
Kyrylo Zemlyanyi · Ukraine · 2025 · 20'
Serhii, a young man who fills his days with volunteer work, loses contact with his mother living in occupied territory. When his mother finally decides to evacuate, he learns that a humanitarian convoy from his hometown has been destroyed in a bombing raid.
Kyrylo Zemlyanyi
Kyrylo Zemlyanyi is a film director, born in Tokmak, Ukraine. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Film Directing, with research focusing on the synthesis of fiction and documentary cinema.
Apocalypse Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and the Day After Tomorrow
Anastasiia Bonadyha · Czech Republic / Ukraine · 2025 · 20'
Through the story of Bohdan, an ordinary man living in Nikopol, the director explores why some people choose to stay in their homeland even when every day might be their last. Bohdan's quiet strength lies in his unwavering faith and ability to find meaning in life, no matter what challenges each new day brings. The film contemplates humanity, resilience, and belief in the face of an unfolding apocalypse.
Anastasiia Bonadyha
Anastasiia Bonadyha is a Ukrainian director from Dnipro, currently studying at the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU in Prague. She is a member of the TPS Remízek collective. Her debut short film, super heavy (2023), was followed by Apocalypse Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and the Day After Tomorrow (2025), and by Skull of an Unknown Woman (2027), currently in production.
My Grandmother Is a Skydiver
Polina Piddubna · Ukraine · 2025 · 13'
Alfiya, a joyful young woman in 1960s Central Asia, is actively parachuting and studying to become a midwife, when she receives an extraordinary phone call from her granddaughter in 2022. She is worried about her grandmother's safety amid the invasion of Ukraine. In this intergenerational conversation across time and space, the granddaughter tries to restore and rethink family memory and her own ethnic identity, break the endless cycle of collective trauma and reflect on the meaning of human life.
Polina Piddubna
Filmmaker, artist and activist with Ukrainian and Central Asian Tatar and Bashqort roots. Polina was born and raised in Kharkiv, started her career in Kyiv, and has been living in Berlin since 2019. She has a bachelor's degree in animation and is currently doing her master's as an animation director at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. Polina also organises social and educational projects, works at film festivals and does artistic research on decolonial topics. Her graduation film "My Grandmother is a Skydiver" premiered at the Festival de Cannes, marking her debut at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world.
Screenings
Thu, 15 Oct 2026 · 21:00 · Followed by Q&A
Prenzlauer Allee 80, 10405 Berlin
Fri, 16 Oct 2026 · 20:30 · Followed by Q&A
Hasenheide 54/5th, 10967 Berlin
Sun, 18 Oct 2026 · 16:30
Straßburger Str. 55, 10405 Berlin
About the Competition
Short Film Competition
The UFFB Short Film Competition showcases the most exciting emerging voices in Ukrainian cinema. Each year an international jury selects from a curated programme of short films — fiction, documentary, and animation.
Awards
Best Ukrainian Short Film
€1,000, awarded by jury
Pluto Film Audience Design Consultancy Award
€1,500 consultation, sponsored by Pluto Film
