Germany transfers 9 films of cultural value to Ukraine – photo

The Federal Archives of Germany handed over to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha a hard drive with nine films from its collection related to Ukraine. The films will be provided to the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre for preservation and analysis. Source: press service for Ukraine's Dovzhenko Centre

Details: Employees of the German Federal Archive, along with Ukrainian cinema critics and archivists, identified and digitised the recordings.

Quote: "These unique works of art and documentary footage provide insight into Ukraine's century-long struggle for independence, as well as the Soviet totalitarian rule of the 1930s and 1940s," according to Sybiha.

Photo: Ukraine's Dovzhenko Centre

"Collaboration with the Federal Archive in repatriating Ukrainian film heritage began long before the war, as early as 2014. The passionate work of Ukrainian and German film researchers and archivists has helped us fill gaps in the Ukrainian cultural process of the 1920s and 1930s," said Olena Honcharuk, director of the Dovzhenko Centre. Andrea Hanger, Vice President of the Federal Archives, called the handover of the discovered videos "a signal of solidarity and support."

"Films are special testimonies of a country's cultural identity, which archives must preserve.

Ukraine's rich cultural heritage must also be made accessible to the wider public in this country," Hanger added.

Photo: Ukraine's Dovzhenko Centre

The Dovzhenko Centre has received three feature films, one short film, two animated films and three documentaries. Some of these films exist only in the Federal Archive as unique modern reproductions on cellulose nitrate media. The oldest film dates back to 1919.

This is the film The Bolshevik Atrocities of 21 August 1919 or Kyiv's Days of Terror, which exposes the brutality of the civil war.

Another movie titled Congratulations on Your Promotion (1932) by Ivha Hryhorovyc, one of Ukraine's few female filmmakers of the 1930s, previously assumed to be lost, was also transferred.

Photo: Ukraine's Dovzhenko Centre

A list of all films (some of which are available online at the link provided on the German Federal Archives' website) can be found here.

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