Remembering Babyn Yar on Film: THE UNVANQUISHED (THE TARAS FAMILY) (НЕСКОРЕНІ)

Infos

Ukraine 1945
Sprache(OV): ukrainisch
90 min

Zur Website des Filmes

---

Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin 2026

Mark Donskoy | 1945 | Feature Film | Ukrainian SSR | 90’ OmeU

Entrance: free with registration
Language: English

Published in 1943, the novella The Unvanquished offered what would soon become the dominant framework for interpreting military action and occupation through the categories of hero, traitor, and victim. Unsurprisingly, the work was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946.

Donskoy's film—part of his popular wartime screen adaptations—goes even further. It transforms a specific geographical location (Luhansk Oblast) into an abstract-epic space of Soviet heroism while remaining completely insensitive to the nuances of human identity. The portrayal of this space culminates in the mass shooting scene of Jewish people, iconographically identical to the events at Babyn Yar in Kyiv—historically the first cinematic depiction of this tragedy on screen.

The film, which received a special mention at the 7th Venice International Film Festival (1946), has unfortunately become relevant once again due to the Russian war in Ukraine, which began in those very same Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Furthermore, it revisits the theme of the "hero-traitor-victim" discourse, which remains vital in our current context. Interestingly, one of the independent Ukrainian films about the war and Roman Shukhevych was directed by Oles Yanchuk in 2000 under the title The Undefeated (Neskoreni).

Also known internationally as The Unvanquished.
Remembering Babyn Yar: A Curated Film Series Marking the 85th Anniversary of the Babyn Yar Massacre

The program comprises two films that represent the complex cinematic memory of Babyn Yar from different historical periods and contexts. Both address fundamental questions concerning the representability of the Holocaust and the role of testimony.

Both screenings will be accompanied by discussions with experts: Irine Beridze (University of Potsdam, literary and film scholar), Anna Onufriienko (a cultural studies researcher, film historian, and curator specializing in Soviet cinema, visual propaganda, and cinematic representations of the Donbas region), and Bozhena Kozakevych (Historian, research associate for the German-Polish House at the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe).

Presented in cooperation between the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin and the University of Potsdam's Institute of Jewish Studies and Religious Studies (Department of German-Jewish Literature).

_________________________________________

The 7th Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin will take place 14 – 18 October 2026 under the theme “Emergency Spaces”.
The festival presents the latest contemporary films from Ukraine alongside curated thematic programmes and retrospectives.

“In recent years, one crisis has followed another, making the reality we once knew seem increasingly distant and difficult to grasp. This is precisely why spaces of refuge and solidarity have become so important: they offer room for reflection and open up new perspectives for the future.”
— Daria Buteiko, Festival Co-Founder

Das Festival ist vom 15. - 18.10.26 auch wieder im ACUDkino zu Gast.