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Roman Bondarchuk

Roman Bondarchuk

Directing

Biography

Roman Bondarchuk is a Ukrainian director. A graduate of Kyiv National University of Theater, Cinema, and Television, Roman has directed short films, documentaries, music videos and the feature film Volcano (2018), which premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, screened at more than 50 festivals worldwide, and won 12 awards, including the Shevchenko National Prize, the highest state prize of Ukraine for works of culture and the arts. Roman’s feature-length documentary Ukrainian Sheriffs won the Special Jury Prize at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2015, Grand Prix of the IDFF Docs against Gravity, and was selected as the Ukrainian submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. His second documentary, Dixie Land (2016), premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in the USA and received a Golden Duke Award for Best Ukrainian Film at the Odesa International Film Festival. Roman also works as an art director of the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival and has been a member of the selection committee for the Ukrainian submissions to the Academy Awards since 2019. Since 2022, he is a co-founder of the Ukraine War Archiveproject, an initiative of the NGO Docudays and Infoscope.

Known For

Dixieland: Little Kids Big Dreams
N/A

Little kids, big dreams and smashingly good music – Dixieland follows the amazing progress of four members of a Ukrainian children’s brass band from Kherson. Through steady practice under the wildest of conditions, Roman (12, trumpet), Polina (10, trombone, drums and many other instruments), Nikita (12, drums) and Nikita (14, piano) produce magical music with ancient, wobbly instruments. Not least due to their wit and good humor, they persevere together, helped along by their 80+-year-old conductor and a young teacher. These children of the post-Soviet provinces use American tunes to achieve their dream – to become someone in the world and make something of their lives, no matter how dire the circumstances. From the authors of an awards winning documentary film Ukrainian Sheriffs.

Dixieland: Little Kids Big Dreams

2015
The Editorial Office
8.0

In the wild steppes of southern Ukraine, a young nature researcher named Yura is looking for an endangered species of groundhog but instead witnesses a crime. Eager to expose the truth, Yura takes his photo evidence to the local newspaper's editorial office. However, he quickly realizes that nobody there cares about pursuing justice. While a big war is looming over the horizon, Yura's naive worldview is splintering in a storm of fake news, rigged political elections, and mysterious cult rituals. On his quest, the hero is about to find out who he really is-an endangered species of a good man or just a loser?

The Editorial Office

2024
Ukraine, Goodbye!
N/A

Ukraine, goodbye! - Ukrainian film Almanac — a collection of short films about the acute social problem of Ukraine-emigration abroad. The collection includes 25 short films in Ukrainian or Russian.

Ukraine, Goodbye!

2011
Roma Dream
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Four stories about residents of camps in Zakarpattia. Denys, Myroslav, Diana, and Renata are considered successful in the Roma community, so they strive to be role models. The series "Roma Dream" is a study by Ukrainian documentary filmmakers of the problems faced by Roma in Zakarpattia Oblast.

Roma Dream

2013
No image
N/A

The film explores the feelings of ordinary people involved in a global conflict – a war. The authors show a simple story of the detention of Ukrainian soldier Mykola by a German commandant from the point of view of Mykola’s grandson, who was born 46 years after the war.

Mykola and the German

2005
No image
5.0

A multimedia documentary project consisting of a series of fresh, colourful insider point-of-view short stories on the present-day life of young people, linked by animated episodes and directed by 15 young and talented filmmakers from the 15 republics formerly annexed by the USSR.

15 Young by Young

2011
Volcano
6.4

A series of odd coincidences has left Lukas, an interpreter for an OSCE military checkpoint inspection tour, stranded near a small southern Ukrainian steppe town. With nowhere to turn, this city boy finds shelter at the home of a colorful local named Vova. With Vova as his guide, Lukas is confronted by a universe beyond his imagination, one in which life seems utterly detached from any identifiable structure. Fascinated by his host and his host's daughter Marushka, with whom he is rapidly falling in love, Lukas’s contempt for provincial life slowly melts away and sets him on a quest for a happiness he had never known could exist.

Volcano

2018
Assholes. Arabesques
2.0

A series of multi-genre short films dedicated to the epidemic of socio-cultural nihilism that has engulfed Ukrainian society.

Assholes. Arabesques

2009
Self-Defense
N/A

From its first days, the Euromaidan was guarded by Self-Defense - the volunteers who maintained order and security by working in shifts. Now most of them serve in the National Guard of Ukraine, and the rest have created self-defense squads in cities and villages all over Ukraine and maintain public order. The Odesa Self-Defense revealed a scheme for smuggling fuel via the sea port to the occupied territories of the Donbas.

Self-Defense

2016
Euromaidan. Rough Cut
7.0

Three months of revolution. From indignant protest to national unity. From pots on their heads to batons and body armor. From the euphoria of victory to the mourning of the fallen Heavenly Hundred. Revolution as an explosion of revived dignity, as the euphoria of freedom, as the pain of awareness at the cost, as the birth of the modern history of Ukraine. This year we have decided not to have an opening film, because all our attention is focused on the changes taking place in our country today. We have asked the directors who filmed the Ukrainian protests to share their best shots with us. The episodes of these upcoming films about the Euromaidan were formed in a kaleidoscope of revolution, which needs no comment. We offer you a chronicle of the Ukrainian protest. Experience the three months of fighting with us, feel and see the revolution through our eyes.

Euromaidan. Rough Cut

2014
No image
5.0

A man finds himself hypnotized by a mysterious MMS.

MMS

2009
Kateryna
N/A

A family, a husband, a member of the Ukrainian People's Republic, goes to war, accompanied by his wife Kateryna, mother, and father. At night, a clash occurs between Ukrainians and White Guards...

Kateryna

2006
White Collar Unit
N/A

While he was fleeing Ukraine, President Viktor Yanukovych tried to destroy all the evidence of his government's corrupt activities. In order to save the drowned, slashed and burned papers and bring about the punishment of the criminals in power, journalists and volunteers organized the White Collar Unit, which day by day is building up valid proof of the crimes from the tiniest pieces.

White Collar Unit

2016
Ukrainian Sheriffs
7.0

Driving in their yellow Lada flying its own little Ukrainian flag, they travel from incident to incident – calming an angry neighbor, investigating the discovery of a body, struggling to unfold a stroller and attempting to re-integrate Vova, the freeloader who eats other people’s dogs but actually longs for a normal existence – just like everyone else here. The seasons pass until political developments reach the village by way of the TV screen, sowing separatist discord.

Ukrainian Sheriffs

2016
Taxi Driver
6.0

This film is a fresco pictured on a background of an abandoned port-town. A taxi-driver falls in love with a young lady, passenger in his car. He makes a decision to marry her and entices her to his house. The lady is scared, she tries to escape, but the taxi-driver locks her up in the bathroom and starts getting ready to the wedding... The film is about a real person from a Ukrainian province who cannot express his own feelings in a common way. He was brought up seeing psychological violence, man's domination over a woman. And even in the situation when he sincerely wants to keep the lady from danger and propose his love and faithfulness, he cannot use any other methods but violence. The script is based on real facts. The characters in the film are real residents of the town Kherson located in the South of Ukraine who shared stories from their lives and brought them to the screen. The film recieved the Main prize at Film festival "Kinoshok" from the Jury of Russian Producers.

Taxi Driver

2007
Witnesses
N/A

These are stories of five brave residents of the Kyiv Region who have survived the Russian occupation but did not stop resisting even for a moment. Delivering humanitarian aid, rescuing our soldiers from encirclement, providing medical aid, cooking for the fighters or just for the cats of Moshchun - all of these are big and small personal feats which inspire us and give us strength to continue fighting. Apart from astonishing stories, the testimony of the residents of the Kyiv Region can help with future investigations and eventually help punish the Russians.

Witnesses

2023
Bloggers
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Bloggers - a film about the common people who, using social media, changed the course of the information war waged by Russia, and created truthful sources of information about the events in Ukraine for the whole world.

Bloggers

2016
Myr
N/A

Myr - a film about Myroslav Hai, an acting teacher in the famous project So You Think You Can Dance, who, during the very first days of Russia's aggression in eastern Ukraine, created a powerful volunteer foundation, and provides the soldiers of the Anti-Terrorist Operation with food, uniforms, night vision devices, and other military equipment.

Myr

2016
Automaidan
N/A

Automaidan - civic activities on four wheels. It started as an association of car owners who patrolled the streets, blocked government buildings, and helped the activists on the Maidan.

Automaidan

2016
Café Voyage
N/A

Vova is a guard at a private fishing enterprise. In the Soviet days and the early 1990s he was the head of a collective fishing farm. Nowadays he’s at the roadside of life, watching things go by from his vantage point – the abandoned Voyage cafe. His tales and stories make up a kaleidoscopic image of present-day Ukraine.

Café Voyage

2014