If you want to master your Ukrainian language or just learn more about Ukrainian culture, I strongly recommend you to watch at least one or many of the films from this list of Ukrainian movies!
Watching movies is a great workout for your listening and comprehension skills. When you watch a movie at home, you can repeat all the scenes in order to understand or guess what it is about; you are silent, attentively listening to the phrases, and observing the action in progress. As a result, you enjoy easy mastery of the language without someone else’s help.
Movies are a medium of Ukrainian national character and culture. Although the humor, romanticism, and optimism of Ukrainian films are often underscored by tragic elements, these movies are nonetheless inspiring.
Тіні забутих предків (1964)
(The Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors)
Don’t mind that the title on Youtube is in Russian, since the film is completely in Ukrainian.
Have you ever thought about the alternative scenarios of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”? “Тіні забутих предків” is the Ukrainian answer to how Romeo could probably survive after the death of Juliet. For a long time, the hero is depressed, but later, he decides he should somehow find a way to keep on living. He gets married, works hard, and tries to overcome his grief this way.
The movie is filled with Ukrainian national traditions: the burying and the wedding ceremonies, Christmas celebrations, and magic rituals. There you can get acquainted with folk songs, Carpathian nature, and the Hutsul dialect of the Ukrainian language.
The lack of subtitles isn’t a problem, as you can easily understand everything through music and video.
Загибель богів (1988)
(The Twilight of Gods)
What do you know about life in Soviet Ukraine? This movie shows how art, freedom, and religion were suppressed by the Soviet regime. Under the suppression of religion, a brave artist intends to create the icon of the Lord’s Supper. To make the icon vivid, the participants of the Supper are taken from the local people.
Soon, the artist is arrested, and the local people are forced to destroy the icons. Here are several quotations from the movie:
– Чим зібрався перекривати? – Соломою, чим же ще. – Соломою тепер не можна. – Чому? – Солом’яна стріха – це націоналізм. Газети читати треба. (– What material do you use to cover your house? – The straw, of course. – The straw isn’t allowed. – Why? – The straw roof means nationalism. You should read newspapers.)
– Ну що це, що? – Мистецтво. – Закрили вашу церкву – закриємо й мистецтво. (– What is it? What?? – The art. – We closed your church, we would close your art as well)
– Не буду я замазувать людський труд, не буду нищити людську святість. – Це ж куркульська агітація. Нам не треба святих!.. Безвірники ми, безвірники! (– I won’t destroy the human’s work; I won’t destroy the human’s holiness. – That’s kurkul agitation. We don’t need saints! We are unbelievers, unbelievers!)
Пропала грамота (1972)
(The Lost Document)
Can you imagine how a drunk person could win a bet with the devil? This movie is about Ukrainian Cossacks who are able to do it!
Based on the texts written by Mykola Gogol, the movie shows the funny adventures of Cossacks. It starts with the cheerful folk song Танцювала риба з раком / The Fish Was Dancing with the Crayfish, which can be seen as a metaphor for the absurd nature of the following events:
Танцювала риба з раком, The fish was dancing with the crayfish,
А петрушка з пастернаком, And the parsley with the parsnip
А цибуля з часником, And the onion with the garlic
А дівчина з козаком! And the girl with the Cossack!
What helps the Cossacks to win? For sure, their beliefs in the victory of truth and… wizard tobacco against devilry (зачарований тютюн проти нечисті).
Ой не ходи, Грицю, та й на вечорниці (1978)
(Oh, Don’t Go, Hryts, to the Vechornytsi – party)
This movie is about a love polyhedron. A couple of darlings are broken by the dishonest activities of several men who are in love with the main character.
It occurs at vechornytsi (вечорниці). Vechornytsi was a sort of autumn-winter fun for youth; there girls and guys communicated, sang, danced, and looked for sweethearts.
Ой не ходи Грицю / Oh don’t go, Hryts:
Ой не ходи Грицю, та й на вечорниці, Oh don’t go, Hryts, to the vechornytsi
Бо на вечорницях дівки чарівниці. Cause at vechornytsi girls are wizards.
Котра дівчина та чорнобрива, то та дівчина усі чари знає. The dark-eyebrowed girl knows all the magic.
У неділю рано зіллячко копала. On Sunday morning, (she) dug the poison herbs.
А в понеділок переполоскала. On Monday (she) rinsed it
Прийшов вівторок – зіллячко зварила. Tuesday came – (she) boiled the poison.
А в середу – Гриця отруїла. On Wednesday, (she) poisoned Hryts.
Такі красиві люди (2013)
(Such Beautiful People)
This modern Ukrainian movie is about people who find happiness in each day of their lives.
The heroes of the movie are beautiful because they know that love is true happiness. A couple of people who love each other more than everything else, the lonely woman-fisher and the unknown writer find their paradise at the seashore. To get acquainted with the woman-fisher, the writer jumps into the water and asks her to host him in order to dry his clothes. Then a new love story starts.
Записки кирпатого Мефістофеля (1994)
(The Notes of Pug-nosed Mephistopheles)
What is an evil man? This movie states that, probably, the man becomes evil after losing optimistic beliefs (in the case of the main hero it is the loss of his revolutionary ideas).
This story is about such type of men; it’s about his women, his crimes, and his everlasting hesitation of being a father. To get rid of the former mistress, the man attempts to kill his child. However, the child survives, the current beloved woman leaves him, and his life is unpredictably changed.
Той, хто пройшов крізь вогонь (2011)
(Firecrosser)
Have you ever heard of Ukrainian folk magic? This movie is a great story of an aviator who was a true magician! Based on true facts, the action starts during the Second World War when a young aviator demonstrates impressive success at the specialized school. Nobody knows how he does it, but they gossip that he is a kharakternyk.
Характерник is a Ukrainian magician who has supernatural skills; he’s able to transform his body, travel through time and space, heal people, predict the future, and even rule wild animals.
Being imprisoned in a USSR concentration camp, the man becomes a werewolf in order to get free and save his life. During this phenomenon, he sets down the belt in front of him and then rolls over it. Although the doom brings him far away from the native land, he finds a new life at the tribe and lastly receives the news from the lost family.
To represent the Soviet atmosphere, the characters mostly talk in Russian. However, the movie has Ukrainian subtitles thereby is helpful for Ukrainian learners to master their language skills.
Julia Blue
Now streaming on Amazon Prime USA & UK.
Julia, a photojournalism student living in post-revolutionary Ukraine, finds her life disrupted after falling for a soldier fresh from the war zone and suffering from PTSD.
“Capturing a fleeting love story in a very specific time and place one year after the 2014 revolution in Kyiv, JULIA BLUE is a different kind of war narrative. Performance driven, artistic and subtle, it is told through the eyes of a young woman who must ultimately choose the best path for her future.”
Film Critic, Thelma Adams
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We hope that this article was helpful for you, and now your to-watch list has Ukrainian films too 😉 Enjoy watching the movies and learning the Ukrainian language!
Would you like to learn to understand fast Ukrainian? Check our article about the best Ukrainian radio stations online and prepare your ear for a lot of Ukrainian!
Looking for more resources to improve your Ukrainian vocabulary? Check out our 1000 most common words in Ukrainian with interactive flashcards. Also, you can learn Ukrainian step by step with our free Ukrainian Lessons Podcast.
