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The Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University will screen and discuss the new historical drama The Way of Generations (2021) by director Mykhailo Ukhman. Yuri Shevchuk will introduce the program and lead the post-screening discussion.
The film is about the centuries-long struggle of the Ukrainian people for freedom. Сreated, produced, and co-written by Mykhailo Ukhman, a war journalist, writer, and volunteer. In this film, Ukhman focuses on the struggle fought by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in World War Two and the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Russian invaders today. The idea of the film came about in 2018 when Mykhailo met Hanna Abramovych-Zelena, former liaison officer for the legendary UIA (North) commander Klym Savur, during a visit to the region of Volyn. Abramovych-Zelena, now 93, shared how she was on a special assignment for the UIA when her neighbor turned her to the Russian secret police. Abramovych-Zelena, 16 at the time, was tortured, gang-raped, and sent to the GULAG. Another film character whose real-life experience inspired the film is UIA soldier Stepan Petrash who survived decades of Soviet camps after being captured by the Russians. Petrash shared how the UIA had fought against German and Soviet invaders.
Cut to the current all-out Russian war on Ukraine when Ukrainians, yet again, are faced with their mortal enemy in a war for their very survival. A young Ukrainian man, Nazar, whose ancestors fought in the UIA, decides this is not his war to fight and stays home while others go to the front. While hiking in the forest, Nazar ends up camping overnight near the grave of a murdered UIA fighter; the fighter visits Nazar in his dream and confronts him about his decision to not fight in defense of his country. Nazar realizes that if the Russians are not thrown out of Ukraine his yet-unborn child will have no future. Nazar quits his job, leaves his pregnant girlfriend, and heads to the war.
The film features actors Larysa Rusnak, Oleksiy Palamarenko, Volodymyr Nikolaienko, Serhii Dovhyi, Anastasia Ponomarenko, Nazar Borushok, Kira Podolska, Svitlana Matviishyn.
Professional and amateur actors and real-life Ukrainian secret service men, special forces fighters and UAF soldiers took part in filming. Some scenes were filmed in Volyn where the UPA resistance was born; others were shot on-location in the Donbas area near the town of Volnovakha, which was razed by the Russian army. Authenticity was important to the filmmakers, who have used actual battlefield tactics and weapons used by Ukrainian forces against the Russians in the film.
The film is in Ukrainian with English subtitles.
