The University of Illinois Springfield will host “Russia’s Siege of Ukraine: Filmmakers on the Front Lines” with a free screening of the documentary “Mariupolis 2” and a discussion with its Ukrainian co-producer Hanna Bilobrova at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 28 in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library.
This event is being presented by the nonprofit Blue/Yellow USA as part of a U.S. tour by Bilobrova and three other surviving members of the film crew. All four of the visiting female filmmakers are natives of Mariupol, an industrial port city in Ukraine’s southeast that was bombed and besieged by Russia at the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Bilobrova received the Free Press’ Most Resilient Journalist Award in 2022 for completing “Mariupolis 2” after her Lithuanian fiancé and co-director Mantas Kvedaravicius was captured and killed by Russian troops shortly after filming. Bilobrova herself brought Kvedaravicius’ body and the film hard drives to safety from behind enemy lines.
“Mariupolis 2” (Ukrainian with English subtitles) won the 2022 European Film Award for Best Documentary. It depicts civilians struggling for normal, daily life — and survival itself — as the noose of war tightens around them.
“Watching this movie reminded me of the strong spirit of the Ukrainian people that I personally experienced in the first days of the Russian invasion, when people without food or water, living under bombing threats, believed in life and the future of Ukraine,” said Ignat Striletskyi, a UIS student and Ukrainian refugee.
The filmmakers’ previous film “Mariupolis” (2016) depicted the city during the more limited Russian separatist war on Mariupol’s doorstep when the city stood as a beacon of civic resistance and resilience to all of Ukraine.
UIS History Professor Heather Bailey and Joyce Nardulli, president of the World Affairs Council of Central Illinois, will introduce and moderate the discussion. UIS co-sponsors include the departments of history; art, music and theatre; English; sociology/anthropology; the Capital Scholars Honors Program and the School of Politics and International Affairs.
Blue/Yellow USA is a U.S.-based tax-exempt charity providing non-lethal, humanitarian and medical aid on the ground to Ukrainian soldiers and civilians on the front lines.