BATTLE FOR UKRAINE at Montreal Film Festival

2012 / Colour / 88 min Russia - Switzerland - Ukraine World Greats

Filmmaking : Andrei Konchalovsky  
Scriptwriter : Andrei Konchalovsky, Ekaterina Zenovich
Photography : Artem Anisimov, Andrey Kostyanov  
Montage : Andrey Borisov
Production House : Svetlana Ostrovskaya, Andrei Konchalovsky Production Centre

BATTLE FOR UKRAINE

In this film, Andrei Konchalovsky, one of Russia’s best known contemporary directors, turns his documentary attention to Ukraine, once part of the Soviet Union, now independent, but still struggling to escape the close - and sometimes stifling - embrace of its neighbouring big brother, Russia. And even as Ukraine attempts to find a healthy relationship with Russia, it is wary of coming under the political sway of its former Cold War enemy, the US. Konchalovsky’s investigation was conducted over a period of almost three years. Ukrainian, Russian and American historians, politicians and journalists took part in this study, as well as the ex-President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, ex-President of Slovakia, Rudolf Schuster, ex-President of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze,  former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, ex-Prime Minister of Russia, Viktor Chernomyrdin, and prominent Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky. One of the experts interviewed in the film is Leonid Kuchma, who was President of Ukraine when the Orange Revolution occurred, when Russia and the US were again competing for influence in a foreign country. Can the interests of Russia and Europe in Ukraine ever be independent? And what is the price of this independence?

Battle for Ukraine screens at the Montreal Film Festival on Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 7 pm. at Cinema Quartier Latin 9 • L9.02.4 •