THE GUIDE
CHARITY EVENT
THU JUN 09, 7.00pm & SAT JUN 11, 4.30pm
During June, many leading independent cinemas across Australia will screen Oles Sanin’s acclaimed feature film THE GUIDE, with box-office proceeds to be donated to Ukrainian Relief Efforts. The film’s director and producer, Sanin, is currently locked down in Kyiv, but has just provided a moving introduction now attached to the movie. It conveys the urgency of the situation and the need for assistance.
Ukraine has a rich history of filmmaking that reaches back more than a century. For much of that time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, but in the last 30 years Ukraine’s film industry has stood on its own. Indeed, before Russia’s 2022 invasion, Ukraine was a vibrant centre of film production.
In the 1930s, the Soviet regime pursued agricultural and other policies that led to the deaths of millions of Ukrainians. This “Terror Famine” represented a genocide aimed at Ukraine. In 2014; Ukrainian filmmakers produced and released THE GUIDE, a drama set in the 1930s depicting this Soviet oppression. The drama was selected as the Ukrainian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. The film also won the Best Actor and Cinematography awards that year at the Odessa International Film Festival. In addition, Oles Sanin’s film was nominated for the grand prize at both the Odessa and the Warsaw International Film Festival!
Donations from cinemas will be collected by Screens Without Borders and donated to the Red Cross Ukraine Appeal.
An American engineer with a strong belief in the ideals of socialism has come to Ukraine, along with his 10-year-old son, to fight the good fight. But after he is killed for stealing confidential documents, his son, Peter, is stranded in Ukraine. With no other options for survival, he ends up becoming a guide for a kobzar, Ivan Kocherga. The kobzar raises the young American to believe in the beauty of the world despite the atrocities he has witnessed—the film’s slogan is “Close your eyes. See with your heart.” But the film also tells the story of a truly dramatic, critical period in Ukrainian history.
