May 9 2017 Mykolaiv

Holiday

People in a Southern Ukrainian city come out to commemorate an important national holiday. Old and new symbols mix in their quest for identity and common understanding. Despite living on neighboring streets, the distance between them is growing. This is a portrait of people who demonstrated on the main square of a city in a country to which war has returned. The film was shot on Victory day on May 9th in Mykolaiv. The flagship city of Russia’s Imperial and Soviet shipbuilding, the city which during Soviet times was considered completely pro-Russian, suddenly reveals its Ukrainian essence. Discussions, various symbols, the battle between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Soviet, red poppies and St. George’s ribbon… In its search for a new self and place in modern day Ukraine, it hurdles itself from one extreme to another.