Prairie Ukrainian Film Festival (PUFF)
June 13–16, 2024

Schedule:
Thursday, June 13
at Ukrainian Museum of Canada:
6 PM – Doors open – Cash bar & light snacks
7 PM – The Guide (2014)

Friday, June 14 at Remai Modern:
7 PM – Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story (2023)

Saturday, June 15 at Remai Modern:
1 PM – PUFFchyk Children’s Feature: Mavka: The Forest Song (2023)
4 PM – Hutsulka Ksenya (2019)
7 PM – 20 Days in Mariupol (2024) *2024 Oscar Winner

Sunday, June 16 at Remai Modern:
12:30 PM – Shchedryk (2022)
3 PM – Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2022)

THE GUIDE (2014)
Thursday, June 13, 7:00 PM
at Ukrainian Museum of Canada

Directed by Oles Sanin. The Guide was Ukraine’s submission to the 87th Academy Awards. Runtime 2h 2m.

Synopsis:
American boy Peter and blind musician Ivan are thrown together by fate amidst the 1930s’ Russian subjugation of Ukraine. The "Terror Famine" of the 30s is incredibly current given the attempts of Russia to once again crush the independence and freedom of their Ukrainian neighbour.

NOTE: All screening fees for The Guide raise money for relief efforts in Ukraine through the Ukraine Relief Fund.

IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3037582/

Language: Ukrainian with English Subtitles

Keywords: The holodomor, genocide, brutality, 1930s’, Soviet Ukraine

SCREAM OF MY BLOOD:
A GOGOL BORDELLO STORY (2023)
Friday, June 14, 7:00 PM
at Remai Modern

Directed by Nate Pommer and Eric Weinrib. Official selection for Sound Unseen 2023, Tribeca Film Festival 2023, Warsaw International Film Festival 2023, and the Florida Film Festival 2024. Runtime 1h 39m.

Synopsis:
Capturing the raucous atmosphere of their live performances, this frenetic globe-trotting history of the immigrant punk band Gogol Bordello is a firecracker of a documentary. Spanning the final days of the Soviet Union all the way to pre-9/11 New York, and ending with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story is as much about how the world shaped Gogol Bordello as how the band shaped the world. The filmmakers’ intimate access to the band through footage captured both on and offstage virtually turns the audience into an army of roadies and students, with Ukrainian-born frontman Eugene Hütz acting as the film’s guide and anchor. Hütz and other band members speak in depth about the cultural roots of their music, while Hütz in particular draws attention to his Romani family members and the influence that community has on him.
– Frederic Boyer 

IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27546324/

Language: English, Ukrainian

Keywords: documentary, Vice News Films, punk icons, immigration story, live music, concert footage

PUFFchyk Children’s Feature:
Mavka: The Forest Song (2023)
Saturday, June 15, at 1:00 PM
At Remai Modern

Directed by Oleh Malamuzh, Oleksandra Ruban, & Yevheniy Yermak.

Synopsis:
Set against an enchanting backdrop, Mavka: The Forest Song revolves around a legendary tree with magical healing powers hidden within an enchanted forest. The story unfolds as a wealthy sawmill owner tries to use its magic to cure his ailing daughter. But his greed triggers a conflict between humans and the woodland beings, causing a devastating fire and a divide between their worlds. Amid this tension, Mavka, a benevolent forest nymph, helps Lucas, a village musician, on a quest to save his uncle. As they navigate their destinies, a sinister woman named Kylina threatens to take the tree's power. Mavka's rise to become the new forest guardian and her new friendship with Lucas sparks hope for harmony between the two worlds. But will it be enough? As the story unfolds, the dwellers in both realms must learn to let go of judgments and find the power in unity.

IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6685538/

Language: English

Keywords: Animated fantasy, Ukrainian fairy tale, enchanted forest, nature spirits, good triumphing over evil

Hutsulka Ksenya (2019)
Saturday, June 15, at 4:00 PM
At Remai Modern

Directed by Alena Demyanenko.

Synopsis:
Yaro, a young Ukrainian American, must voyage to the Carpathian Mountains in order to fulfill his father's last wish—for him to marry a true Ukrainian girl. If Yaro does not fulfill this wish within a year, his father's fortune goes to a distant relative named Mary. As Yaro attempts to navigate the unique and eccentric individuals who now surround him, as well as the obstacles Mary and her mother are determined to lay before him, he falls in love with a woman who embodies everything his father told him about Ukrainian women.

This mystical tale of love and finding oneself is full of music and the beautiful spirit of Ukraine.

IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7736212/

Language: English

Keywords: Musical comedy, Western Ukraine, 1939, Carpathian Mountains, love story

20 Days in Mariupol (2023)
Saturday, June 15, 7:00 PM
At Remai Modern

Directed by Mstyslav Chernov. Winner of 2024 Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature. Runtime: 1h 35m

Synopsis:
Ukrainian filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mstyslav Chernov offers a window into the practices of conflict zone reporters and an unflinching, anguishing account of the 20 days he and colleagues spent covering Mariupol. After nearly a decade covering international conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, for The Associated Press, 20 Days in Mariupol is Mstyslav Chernov’s first feature film. The film draws on Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24082438/

Language: English, Ukrainian, Russian (with English subtitles)
Content Advisory: Violence

Keywords: documentary, the Russian invasion, journalism, international reporters, The Associated Press, civilians in war, reporting from conflict zone

Shchedryk (2023)
Sunday, June 16, at 12:30 PM
At Remai Modern

Directed by Olesia Morhunets-Isaienko

Immortalized as one of the most scintillating and uplifting Christmas songs, Carol of the Bells, adapted from a popular and loved Ukrainian folk melody Shchedryk, has come to represent the spirit of brotherhood and unity worldwide. The song serves as a narrative path in this story of a peaceful and neighbourly existence of three Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish families, who share a large house, musical evenings, and merriment in the Ukrainian town of Stanislav. Their domestic harmony is shattered first by the Nazi invasion and then by the Soviet occupation of Ukraine. A moving story of courage, sacrifice, and love.

IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8332658/

Language: Ukrainian with English subtitles

Keywords: historical drama, family, death and loss, courage, sacrifice, love, Soviet occupation, Nazi invasion, Polish and Ukrainian Christmas traditions, holocaust, Carol of the Bells origin story, the power of music

Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2022)
Sunday, June 16, at 3:00 PM
At Remai Modern

Directed by Antonio Lukich.

Born to a gangster Yugoslavian father and Ukrainian mother in Lubny, Ukraine, a central town with not much to write home about, twin brothers Kolya (Ramil Nasirov) and Vasily (Amil Nasirov) got into some good, old-fashioned trouble in their youth. But their respected and notoriously feared father was always there to bail the boys out. Now one twin is a bus driver and the other is a cop, both saddled with their own problems, common to those born into poverty and with little access to the outside world. When an urgent call from the Ukrainian consulate in Luxembourg — the third most dangerous capital in Europe, as the joke goes — reports that the father they haven’t seen in 20 years is dying, the twins must decide what to do.

Inspired by true events from his own upbringing, Lukich’s charming and melancholic film asks: Should children be responsible for their parents? What if they really don’t deserve it?! Taking place in a time before Russia’s war on Ukraine was raging throughout the entire country and threatening peace from East to West, Luxembourg, Luxembourg is a warm-hearted journey dedicated to parents — with their secrets and lies — and to their beloved songs that only make sense when we’re older. Antonio Lukich’s debut feature, My Thoughts Are Silent, was screened at PUFF 2023.

Content Advisory: Violence

Language: Ukrainian with English Subtitles

IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19783714/

Keywords: dark comedy, a warm-hearted journey dedicated to parents, secrets and lies, troubled youth, making peace with your past