Screenings of Sergei Loznitsa’s films Donbass and Babi Yar. Context

22 July, 10pm Sergei Loznitsa: Donbass

23 July, 10pm Sergei Loznitsa: Babi Yar. Context

Nida Community House 

Taikos str. 17

Nida

Sergei Loznitsa’s Maidan, Babi Yar. Context and Donbass form a trilogy of Losnitza’s work investigating destruction in Ukraine. Maidan was screened last week as part of the Thomas Mann Festival followed by an introduction and a meeting with Sergei Loznitsa. A week later, Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts together with Culture and Tourism Information Center Agila and Neringa Museums show Babi Yar. Context and Donbass as a fundraiser to support an initiative by The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center to gather funds for Yahad-In Unum, to thoroughly document and collect the evidence of crimes against humanity committed by the Russian aggressors.

Yahad-In Unum is an organization dedicated to locating the sites of mass graves of Jewish victims of the Nazi mobile-killing units in the former Soviet Union. The organization was founded in 2004 by the French Roman Catholic and Jewish communities.

Russia's aggression against Ukraine has shown that genocidal practices have not disappeared. They are repeating in Bucha, Irpin, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, and other cities of Ukraine - the cities last bombarded by Nazi Germany during World War II. Just like in the movie Babi Yar. Context, we are witnessing houses, hospitals, and kindergartens burning amid Russian shelling. People escape to basements and bomb shelters or flee. Millions are forced to leave their homes and move to a safer place in Ukraine or abroad. The bodies of civilians tortured and shot in the back of the head are again scattered on the streets and buried in ravines. This heinous crime must be investigated, and the perpetrators must be punished.

The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center works with a group of researchers, who will put together a solid database for the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. The first steps have already been taken - the Academic Council of the Foundation has addressed a statement to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. 

Film synopsis Donbass (2018)

In the Donbass, a region of Eastern Ukraine, a hybrid war takes place, involving an open armed conflict alongside killings and robberies on a mass scale perpetrated by separatist gangs. In the Donbass, war is called peace, propaganda is uttered as truth and hatred is declared to be love. A journey through the Donbass unfolds as a chain of curious adventures, where the grotesque and drama are as intertwined as life and death. This is not a tale of one region, one country or one political system. It is about a world, lost in post-truth and fake identities. It is about each and every one of us.

Film synopsis Babi Yar. Context (2021)

Babi Yar. Context is, in a way, a film-anatomy of a terrible crime. It’s the crime committed against civilians and military personnel in favor of misanthropic and totalitarian ideologies. The phenomenon of the film is that the director managed to conduct “archaeological research”, one by one peeling off the layers from the original propaganda materials. The strength and the value of the film is in the way it shows the undisguised evil of the Holocaust by putting documentary footage into the long history of crimes while adding an artistic element to it. The film uncovers the crimes against prisoners of war and the tragedy of silencing and erasing the memory of the victims.

DONATIONS

We suggest donating as from 7€

Donations are accepted either via the bank account: 

CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION “MEMORY FOUNDATION “BABYN YAR” 

Code of legal entity 33547081 

03150, Kyiv, Street Velyka Vasylkivska, 100 

Individual tax number 335470826500 

Bank details: “First Ukrainian International Bank” JSC, Kyiv, Ukraine 

Bank address: 04070, Kyiv, Street Andriyivska, 14 

SWIFT FUIBUA2X 

IBAN: UA173348510000000026001174672 

Multicurrency: USD/EUR/UAH

Or 

PayPal: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

(Kateryna Turchynska — Chief Financial Officer)

The film screenings are organised as response to an initiative by The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center by Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts in collaboration with Culture and Tourism Information Center Agila and Neringa Museums with support from Scanorama and PYRAMIDE Films. 

The screenings are funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture and Neringa Municipality.