Yevrodonbas

Director Kornii Hrytsiuk, himself born in Donetsk, shows the European heritage of Mariupol, Lysychansk, Druzhivka and New York. And explains that Donetsk was formerly called Yuzhivka, named after the industrialist John Hughes, who was the first to process the abundant rare mineral resources to be found there. He follows in the footsteps of the numerous migrant workers who worked in the factories here, were often exploited and made Mariupol the liveliest city in the region. Hrytsiuk says the following about his film: “In our film, we show the unique architectural pieces of Donbas, such as the ‘Belgian quarter’ of Lysychansk, which won the Belgian Prize for the best architectural heritage of Belgium abroad in 2018. We show interesting French buildings in Druzhkivka and German ones in New York village. […] After the revolution of 1917, and the Soviet’s rise to power, the factories were taken from the European and North American settlers and nationalized, effectively destroying the memory of European history there. Since February 24th, 2022, Russian troops have been continuing in their efforts to sabotage these buildings of European heritage, finalizing what their ancestors did not have time to do during the Soviet Union.”

Kammerbühne Serienlounge: Original version with engl. subtitles
Glad-House/Obenkino: Original version with English subtitles

This film is part of the Ukranian Day at FilmFestival Cottbus.