Films about Kyiv

1929Documentary

In Spring

Навесні / Весной · dir. Mikhail Kaufman · USSR

A silent documentary “city symphony” by Mikhail Kaufman, the cameraman of Man with a Movie Camera and Dziga Vertov’s brother. The camera watches Kyiv in 1929 waking up from winter: melting snow, streets coming alive, people at work. Today it is a rare film portrait of an almost forgotten pre-war Kyiv (a few shots were in fact filmed in Kharkiv).

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1929Feature film

Arsenal

Арсенал · dir. Oleksandr Dovzhenko · USSR

The second part of Dovzhenko’s “Ukrainian trilogy” (Zvenyhora, Arsenal, Earth) — a poetic revolutionary epic about the January 1918 uprising of workers at Kyiv’s Arsenal factory against the Central Rada. It was shot at the VUFKU studio in Odesa, but its story and climax belong to Kyiv. A classic of world avant-garde cinema, it ranks 27th among the 100 best Ukrainian films.

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1957Feature film

Shtepsel Arranges the Marriage of Tarapunka

Штепсель женит Тарапуньку · dir. Yukhym Berezin, Yurii Tymoshenko · USSR

A comedy starring the legendary stage duo Tarapunka and Shtepsel, played by their creators Yurii Tymoshenko and Yukhym Berezin. After the war Tarapunka is a traffic controller in Kyiv and Shtepsel works at a theatre, when Halia — the girl Tarapunka fell for at the front — comes to the capital for an amateur arts contest. A chance to see post-war Kyiv through the eyes of the era’s favourite comedians.

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1961Feature film

Chasing Two Hares

За двома зайцями · dir. Viktor Ivanov · USSR

The most Kyiv of all Ukrainian comedies, based on Mykhailo Starytsky’s play: bankrupt barber Svyryd Holokhvostyi courts both the rich Pronia Sirko and the beautiful Halia. It is set in late-19th-century Kyiv and shot on location, including the wedding procession by St Andrew’s Church. In 1999 a monument to its characters was unveiled on Andriivskyi Descent.

Kyiv on screen: Andriivskyi Descent, St Andrew’s Church, Volodymyrska Hill, Podil

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1966Feature film

Kyiv Frescoes

Київські фрески / Киевские фрески · dir. Sergei Parajanov · USSR

An unfinished film by Sergei Parajanov, conceived in 1965 for the 20th anniversary of the WWII victory. The feature was never made, but cinematographer Oleksandr Antypenko kept the screen tests, later edited into a 15-minute allegorical film poem about the aftermath of war. It opens with shots of Kyiv’s monuments and is a rare record of Parajanov’s Kyiv years after Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.

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1976TV series

The Days of the Turbins

Дни Турбиных · dir. Vladimir Basov · USSR

A three-part TV film based on the play by Kyiv-born Mikhail Bulgakov about the Turbin family. Kyiv, winter 1918–1919: power passes from the Hetman to the Directorate and then to the Bolsheviks, and the characters must choose their side. Some exteriors were shot in Kyiv — on Andriivskyi Descent, where Bulgakov lived, on Volodymyrska Hill, by the Mariinskyi Palace and on Sofiiska Square.

Kyiv on screen: Andriivskyi Descent, Volodymyrska Hill, Mariinskyi Palace, Sofiiska Square

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1981Feature film

Yaroslav the Wise

Ярослав Мудрый · dir. Hryhorii Kokhan · USSR

A historical drama from the Dovzhenko Film Studio (co-produced with Mosfilm) about Prince Yaroslav. After the death of Grand Prince Volodymyr his sons fight for the Kyiv throne, and Yaroslav wins, opening the “golden age” of Rus’. St Sophia’s Cathedral was built under Yaroslav, so this is a film about the origins of the medieval Kyiv you can still see today.

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1983Feature film

The Legend of Princess Olga

Легенда о княгине Ольге · dir. Yurii Illienko · USSR

Yurii Illienko’s two-part poetic epic about Olga, the 10th-century princess of Kyivan Rus’ and the first of its rulers to adopt Christianity. It opens in the capital Kyiv in 1015, where her grandson Prince Volodymyr lies dying. Notably, in 1984 the studio was barred from making a Ukrainian-language version, so only the Russian-language one was released.

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1997Feature film

A Friend of the Deceased

Приятель небіжчика / Приятель покойника · dir. Viacheslav Kryshtofovych · Ukraine, France

An adaptation of Andrey Kurkov’s novella, scripted by Kurkov himself. Anatolii, a young Kyiv translator abandoned by his wife and lost in the “wild capitalism” of the 1990s, hires a hitman to kill him — and then, when life suddenly improves, has to save himself. One of the best portraits of 1990s Kyiv, it was Ukraine’s Oscar submission.

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2014Feature film

The Tribe

Плем'я · dir. Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi · Ukraine, Netherlands

A harsh drama about teenager Serhii, who arrives at a boarding school for the deaf and is drawn into a criminal gang called “the Tribe”. Performed entirely in Ukrainian Sign Language with no subtitles or voice-over, it won the Grand Prize of the Cannes Critics’ Week. It was filmed in boarding schools in Kyiv and the Kyiv region — a Kyiv rarely seen in guidebooks.

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2014Documentary

Euromaidan. Rough Cut

Євромайдан. Чорновий монтаж · dir. Roman Bondarchuk, Kateryna Hornostai, Volodymyr Tykhyi et al. (Babylon'13) · Ukraine

A collective documentary by filmmakers of the Babylon’13 initiative, shot as the Revolution of Dignity unfolded. Three months of protest in central Kyiv — from outrage and saucepans worn as helmets to batons, body armour and national unity. It opened the Docudays UA festival in March 2014.

Kyiv on screen: Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square)

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2014Documentary

Maidan

Майдан · dir. Sergei Loznitsa · Ukraine, Netherlands

Sergei Loznitsa’s chronicle of Euromaidan, filmed right on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in the winter of 2013–2014 — from peaceful rallies to bloody clashes and the fall of Yanukovych. Its protagonist is the crowd and the city itself, which became the heart of the revolution. It premiered as a special screening at Cannes 2014.

Kyiv on screen: Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square)

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2015Documentary

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

dir. Evgeny Afineevsky · Ukraine, USA, UK

A Netflix documentary about the 93 days of the Revolution of Dignity, from November 2013 to February 2014, centred on Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti. It tells the events chronologically through footage and testimonies of a couple of dozen protesters. It was nominated for the 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Kyiv on screen: Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square)

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2015TV series

Servant of the People

Слуга народу · dir. Oleksii Kyriushchenko · Ukraine

Kvartal 95’s political comedy about Kyiv history teacher Vasyl Holoborodko (Volodymyr Zelenskyy), who is unexpectedly elected President of Ukraine. It was shot around Kyiv — in courtyards of apartment blocks, shopping malls and at VDNH, with the inauguration scene filmed in the Teacher’s House. Season one aired on 1+1 in 2015; the plot later famously echoed real-life politics.

Kyiv on screen: VDNH, Teacher’s House (Budynok Uchytelia)

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2021Documentary

Babi Yar. Context

Бабий Яр. Контекст · dir. Sergei Loznitsa · Netherlands, Ukraine

Sergei Loznitsa’s archival documentary on the prelude to and aftermath of the Babyn Yar massacre, where Nazi forces shot 33,771 Kyiv Jews on 29–30 September 1941. It is assembled from rare and often unseen footage shot by professional and amateur cameramen. Premiered in Cannes Special Screenings in 2021, it is essential viewing for understanding a site that is now a memorial in Kyiv.

Kyiv on screen: Babyn Yar

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2021Feature film

Stop-Zemlia

Стоп-Земля · dir. Kateryna Hornostai · Ukraine

Kateryna Hornostai’s debut about Masha, an introverted 16-year-old at an ordinary Kyiv high school, her friends Yana and Senia, and her first crush. It was shot in the winter of 2019–2020 in Kyiv and its region with non-professional Kyiv teenagers, with Lyceum No. 157 in Obolon standing in for the school. It won the Berlinale Crystal Bear in Generation 14plus.

Kyiv on screen: Obolon (Lyceum No. 157)

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2022Documentary

Larysa Kadochnikova. The War

Лариса Кадочникова. Війна · dir. Dmytro Tomashpolskyi · Ukraine

Larysa Kadochnikova — Marichka in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors — refused to evacuate on 24 February 2022 and stayed in Kyiv. Dmytro Tomashpolskyi’s film, shot almost clandestinely from 24 February until early April, when the enemy was pushed back from the capital, is both a portrait of the actress and of a deserted, stern Kyiv ready to defend itself. It was first screened at Kyiv’s House of Cinema on 30 August 2022.

Kyiv on screen: Beresteiskyi Avenue (former Peremohy Avenue), Fomin Botanical Garden

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2023Feature film

Do You Love Me?

Ти мене любиш? · dir. Tonia Noyabrova · Ukraine, Sweden

Tonia Noyabrova’s semi-autobiographical drama about teenager Kira growing up in Kyiv in 1990, a year before the Soviet collapse. A personal story of family, first love and finding oneself plays out against an era when everything — including the city — was changing. It premiered in the Berlinale Panorama in 2023.

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2024Documentary

The Battle for Kyiv

dir. Oz Katerji · United Kingdom

British-Lebanese journalist Oz Katerji filmed in Kyiv during the first months of the full-scale invasion. The film follows the battle for the capital from the days before 24 February to its liberation on 2 April 2022 through MP Sviatoslav Yurash and a team of volunteers delivering aid across front lines. It closes with the devastation and war crimes uncovered after Russian troops were driven out.

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