This year’s OIFF Ukrainian retrospective deals with the issues of cinematic propaganda and occupation, which are on the front burner for Ukraine today. Ivan Kozlenko, general director of the Olexandr Dovzhenko National Center, is the author and curator of the programme, centred on the Siege of Odessa in 1941. The selection includes feature films and newsreels produced in the Soviet Union and Romania that present this World War II historical episode from opposite ideological perspectives.

The entitling movie, Venice Film Festival award-winning Italian-Romanian drama Odessa in fiamme (Odessa in Flames) by Carmine Gallone (1942), pays tribute to Romanian troops, who try to free Odessa from USSR Red Army invasion. On the contrary, Soviet films of the programme reflect the same events as the Siege of Odessa by the Romanians. Thirst by Yevgeniy Tashkov (1959) tells the story of heroic defense of Odessa, when the city was left without potable water. Odessa Holiday by Yuriy Petrov (1965) follows the bunch of senior high school students, whose summer and youth are ruthlessly destroyed by the war. A Boy Named Captain by Mark Tolmachyov (1973) is based on the biography of a pioneer-hero Yakov Gordienko.

The retrospective also features newsreels of the period, among others Oleksandr Dovzhenko's Bukovyna: a Ukrainian Land (1940), and Odessa (1935) by French director Jean Lods, which recalls the history of the city and its heyday in the times of Joseph Stalin.

Michael Nyman Band live on Potemkin Stairs
Odessa International Film Festival and British Council Ukraine will present the 1929 highly acclaimed experimental film Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov with a live music soundtrack from British composer Michael Nyman, in the traditional open-air screening at the Potemkin Stairs. Michael Nyman will also deliver a workshop at the Summer Film School. 

OIFF programmes
This year, 670 films from 75 countries were submitted to the OIFF Selection Committee. Among them are 163 Ukrainian or co-produced with Ukraine, mainly dedicated to the events of the Revolution of Dignity and occupation of the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.

OIFF will also present a new children programme section from the Festival “Children KinoFest” in Ukraine.

As well as last year, OIFF-2015 lineup will include films about the role of civil society, presented in the non-competitive section “Way to Freedom”.

OIFF in Cannes
Representatives of the Odessa International Film Festival will be present at the Cannes Film Festival from May 13 to 23. To arrange a meeting, please contact:

Julia Sinkevych, Executive Producer
+380667386741 / j.sinkevych@oiff.com.ua

Anthelme Vidaud, Program Director
+33670501822 / a.vidaud@oiff.com.ua

Oleksandra Kravchenko, PR & Communications Director
+380679967771 / a.kravchenko@oiff.com.ua

On May 19, 4 pm, OIFF invites friends and colleagues for cocktail reception at Ukrainian Pavillion at the Cannes Marché du Film. Please, RSVP at guests@oiff.com.ua before May 18.

The 6th Odessa International Film Festival will be held on July 10 - 18, 2015.