IMDb, the world’s largest database of information related to films, series, video games, and streaming content online, created a list of 50 Ukrainian documentaries that everyone should watch to better understand Ukraine, its history, culture, and freedom-loving people as well.
There are movies filmed in 1929-2020 dedicated to WWII, the history of Crimea and Crimean Tatars, the Revolution of Dignity, and those describing the lives and stories of ordinary Ukrainians from different parts of the country.
The collection mostly includes contemporary movies filmed after 2000. A lot of them are dedicated to Ukrainian modern historical events, such as the Revolution of Dignity, the war in Donbas that Russia launched in 2014, and the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014.
“Maidan” (2014), “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” (2015), “Crimea as It Was” (2016), “Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine” (2017), “War Note” (2020), “The Earth Is Blue as an Orange” (2020) are among the Ukrainian documentaries that show Ukrainians fighting for their freedom and trying to cope with living in the war-zone.
There are also movies from the Soviet Ukrainian period, the time when Ukraine was part of the USSR from 1919 to 1991. The most famous documentary is the experimental silent one called “The Man with the Movie Camera,” directed by Dziga Vertov in 1929, that have already become an international classic.
The IMDb list also includes sports documentaries like “Home Games” (2018) about the story of a 20-year-old talented soccer player Alina from a poor family, who forced to take responsibility for her young half-brother and half-sister, “UKE. The Untold Story of Hockey Legends” (2020) that show stories of Ukrainians who won the Stanley Cup.
There are also some movies about Ukrainian culture, such as “Budynok ‘Slovo'” (2017), which tells the story of a multi-story residential building for cultural figures in Kharkiv, and “Yours Vasyl” (2020) about Vasyl Stus, the famous Ukrainian poet and dissident, who died in a Soviet prison camp.
Previously, AIN.Capital created its own collection of 10 Ukrainian movies you can watch in English to learn more about the long-term confrontation between the Russian invaders and the Ukrainian people.