Description
Joshua First
Ukrainian Cinema: Belonging and Identity during the Soviet Thaw
The history of Ukrainian cinema is a vital testimony to the complexity of Russian–Ukrainian relations and a vivid demonstration of the inseparable connection between politics and aesthetics. Ukrainian Cinema: Belonging and Identity during the Soviet Thaw by Joshua First marks the beginning of a long-term process of re-examining Russian-centric academic narratives.
The works of Serhii Parajanov, Yurii Illienko, Leonid Osyka, Ivan Mykolaichuk, and other filmmakers forever transformed public perceptions of Ukrainian identity. In his book, Joshua First explores the era we have come to know as the period of “poetic cinema.” Examining its historical, geographical, ideological, and production dimensions, the author demonstrates how their synthesis gave rise to the phenomenon of Ukrainian poetic cinema.
This is one of the very few English-language academic studies of such scope, conceptual depth, and historical rigor devoted to Ukrainian cinema.
The publication was made possible with the financial support of the ZMIN Foundation.
Translation and publication were supported by the European Union through the House of Europe program.
Editor of the Ukrainian edition — Stanislav Menzelevskyi.
Designer — Halya Verheles.
Dovzhenko Centre, 2025
Book (Ukrainian), softcover, 280 pages
