The National Competition programme of the 15th Odesa International Film Festival has been announced

The National Competition Programme of the 15th Odesa International Film Festival, which will be held from July 12 to 20, includes 10 feature films. Both fiction and documentary films will compete for awards.

Fiction Films:

• Diagnosis: Dissent, directed by Denis Tarasov, Ukraine

The film takes the viewer back to the precious century.  Its topic, raised for the first time in feature films, opens one of the most shameful and terrifyng pages in the history of the USSR - the so-called "punitive psychiatry" used by the KGB in the fight against political and religious dissidents. The film's protagonist is a young man who wants to feel free in his country - free to listen to rock music or wear long hair. However, his longing for freedom comes up against the cruelty of the system in a country where the KGB uses the most shameful methods to control people like him.

• Grey Bees, directed by Dmytro Moiseiev, Ukraine

In the "gray zone" of anti-terrorist operation, in a small village without electricity there were only two enemies of the childhood. Under shells, which sometimes fly over the village, with uninvited armed guests, retired neighbors lead their modest lives, sometimes meeting for contradictory but necessary communication. Everyone's life has not turned out differently, and both have time to rethink it. Due to the war, they try to create their peaceful life in a dangerous place, but everything falls apart when a Russian sniper appears in the village.

• Lucifer`s case, directed by Valerii Shalyha, Ukraine

A wealthy peasant, Gerasim Kalitka, wants to buy his neighbor's land, but he doesn't have enough money.The unknown offers him to buy one hundred thousand fake money for five thousand. Kalitka together with the best man Savka buy this money. But instead of money, they are sold blank paper. In desperation, Kalitka wants to hang himself, but he is saved. Kalitka's greed almost ended in tragedy, but he continues to dream of land.

• Oxygen Station, directed by Ivan Tymchenko, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia

1980, USSR. Crimean Tatar rights activist and political prisoner Mustafa Jemilev is exiled to the settlement Zyryanka in Yakutia, where he must work at the oxygen station. Three people are headed toward him across the huge country with vastly different goals - to meet, to destroy, to protect.

• The Glass House, directed by Taras Dron, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Cyprus

The life of ambitious architect Victoria changes after her daughter disappears, accused of drug trafficking. Victoria launches her own investigation and tries to prove her daughter’s innocence and avoid losing an important project.

• Yasa, directed by Sergii Masloboishchykov,

Year 2015. Hanna (mother) and Darka (girlfriend) are united by the memories of Danya, who died in 2014 on the Maidan. Hanna's life path went from a Maidan activist 2004 to a high-level government official. Through the relationship between the two women, it turns out that Hanna was associated with the corruption that led to mafia revenge in Ukraine in 2010, and ended up the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. Hanna is increasingly convinced that her personal actions are linked to her son's death.

Documentary Films:

• Glyadielov, directed by Ksenia Kravtsova, Ukraine

Oleksandr Glyadyelov is a Ukrainian master of documentary photography. "Glyadyelov" is a film of observation, voyeurism. Traveling with the photographer from Kyiv and Bucha to Kharkiv, Odesa, and Ilovaisk, from the 1990s to 2022, from homeless street children to the terrifying wars unleashed by Russia, the viewer becomes a conversationalist with the film's heroes. And together with Glyadyelov, they traverse the path from the inevitability of current events to confidence in the triumph of good.

• Kilometre, directed by Hanna Tykha, Ukraine

Roma was working in London when the Ukrainian conflict rapidly escalated with Russia’s army rolling across the border of his home. He decides to return to his family, whose town soon becomes a battlefield. While they take shelter in basements, cut off from the rest of their country, Roma joins an air intelligence unit, operating drones to locate the whereabouts of the invading force. As the drone flies, Roma is so close to his family, but in reality, the gulf between them is enormous.

• Perun’s Flute, directed by Yevhen Mazurenko, Ukraine

The film is based on video footage shot directly on the battlefield.  “Sopilka” is the code name for a radio communication gun. Figuratively, the cannon resembles a flute, and such an instrument would be suitable for the god of thunder, Perun. The characters in the movie are artillery soldiers. Different people in peaceful life - in war, they are in the same limited space, a few hundred meters away, and serve as if they were ancient priests of a pagan tribe in a sacred place, and their altar is a cannon.

• Warning! Life goes on, directed by Anton Shtuka, Ukraine

A street artist from Kharkiv travels to the liberated city of Izyum, which is 60 km from the front line, previously occupied by Russian forces. The artist draw his works on the streets of the destroyed city during Russian occupation and meets local residents. One of them is Volodymyr, who lost half of his family in the collapse of a building. Interacting and observing the artist's work inspires him to start changing his life.

Winners of the National Competition will be determined in the categories "Best Ukrainian Feature Film" and "Best Ukrainian Feature Documentary Film."

The 15th Odesa International Film Festival will take place from July 12 to 20, 2024, in Kyiv.

The 15th Odesa International Film Festival is supported by the Ukrainian State Film Agency and the Creative Europe Program.