Close Relations

Directed by Vitaly Mansky

Leading documentary filmmaker, Russian citizen and Soviet-born Ukrainian native Vitaly Mansky crisscrosses Ukraine to explore the country’s society after the Maidan revolution as mirrored within his own large Ukrainian family. They live scattered all across the country: in Lviv, Odessa, the separatist area in Donbass, and Sevastopol on Crimea. The film is looking for reasons of the conflict after which citizens of a single country found themselves on different sides of the barricades.

The main narrative takes place in the here and now, starting with the turning point of ex-president Victor Yanukovych’s flight to Russia. But below the main narrative there is a strong historical undercurrent, because the lives of protagonists of the film are marked by history on every step they take. This undercurrent will carry information about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict’s deep roots in centuries of close ties between the two countries.

Duration:
112 minutes

Translated title:
Rodnye

Languages:
Russian and Ukrainian

Subtitles:
Full English

Country of origin:
Denmark, Estonia and Great Britain

Year of production:
2016

This screening has no adverts or trailers and starts at the advertised time