Film: Songs of Slow Burning Earth

In the organizer's words:

Ukraine - When war becomes everyday life, Olha Zhurba

95 min., OmU

Almost three years of war. What traces does the violence leave on people? How does it shape the collective memory? ARTE supports twelve Ukrainian film teams. They talk about what the war has done to them and what it means to live in Ukraine today.

In Songs of Slow Burning Earth, filmmaker Olha Zhurba documents Ukraine's slow plunge into the abyss of war over the course of two years. The changes within Ukrainian society become visible as the panic and terror of the first weeks of the Russian invasion gradually transform into the numbing silence of acceptance of death and destruction. This tragic normality, which becomes part of everyday life for the local population, increasingly becomes a side note for the rest of the world. Against the backdrop of the physical and metaphysical landscape of this collective catastrophe, a new generation of Ukrainians is trying to imagine a future.

Followed by a discussion with Thomas Beyer, Editor (History and Documentaries), MDR, Commissioning Editor for MDR/ARTE co-productions of the twelve-part documentary series Generation Ukraine.

Moderated by Lissandra Haulica, Film and Media Attachée of the French Embassy in Germany.

Event in cooperation with arte, Passage Kinos Leipzig and the Leipzig Book Fair.