Best Ukrainian drama movies
A curated collection of popular drama movies from Ukraine.
Winter of The Braves (2018)
Winter of The Braves (2018)
1918 Ukraine. Patriotic students, protagonists of the film, get ready to defend Kyiv and fight heroically in the Battle of Kruty. On this historical background reveals the story of the Savytskyi family - the general of Ukraine's counterintelligence and his two sons, Andrii and Oleksa.
The Witch. Revenge (2024)
The Witch. Revenge (2024)
The tale unfolds around an ancient witch from the Ukrainian town of Konotop, who long ago abandoned her extraordinary powers after falling in love with a mortal man. However, tragedy strikes when her beloved is brutally murdered by the russian soldiers as they occupy Konotop in February 2022. Fueled by grief and a thirst for revenge, she reclaims her supernatural abilities, embarking on a blood-soaked quest to mete out justice to her fiancé's killers.
Khaytarma (2013)
Khaytarma (2013)
The film tells about the tragic date in the history of the Crimean Tatar people — May 18, 1944 — Stalin’s deportation of the Crimean Tatars. The plot of the film — a pilot, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Amethan Sultan. In May, 1944, a year after liberation of Sevastopol Amethan goes on vacation to his native town Alupka. On May 18 his eyes witness begining of deportation of the Crimean Tatars.
Myrnyi-21 (2023)
Myrnyi-21 (2023)
The story of trust and its absence against the background of events unfolding in Eastern Ukraine in early 2014. The main topic is revealed through the prism of the Luhansk border base, whose fighters the separatists and Russian special services tried unsuccessfully force to betray their country.
Call Sign "Banderas" (2018)
Call Sign "Banderas" (2018)
In the autumn of 2014, in the ATO zone, an intelligence group headed by experienced captain Anton Saienko (called by nickname "Banderas") tries to prevent sabotage and neutralize the Russian saboteur.
Black Raven (2019)
Black Raven (2019)
Ukraine 1922. The Russian empire has already broken up, but a new state has not yet been formed. Many tried to create and consolidate their independence during this period, and this is the story of one of such people. This is the story of the life and love of one person - Ivan, nicknamed Raven ...
House with a Turret (2012)
Eastman (2020)
Eastman (2020)
This is a portrait of a man, for whom the war in Eastern Ukraine has become a personal challenge. Beard is a native of the Donbas, a man of about forty-five, a family guy, an ordinary worker. Director is a young man of about twenty-six, single, a west-man, coming from the intelligentsia. This is the usual day of the ordinary military. These are events and people whom you can meet there. This is the relationship between people who have to be here and now during the war. This is not only a unique life experience but also a kind of cultural exchange between different social strata and communities. This is the birth of new, special traditions.
Reflection (2022)
Reflection (2022)
The film centers on Ukrainian surgeon Serhiy, who is captured by the Russian military forces in the conflict zone in Eastern Ukraine, and while in captivity, he is exposed to horrifying scenes of humiliation, violence and indifference toward human life. After his release, he returns to his comfortable middle-class apartment and tries to find a purpose in life by rebuilding his relationship with his daughter and ex-wife. He learns how to be a human being again, how to be a father and help his daughter, who needs his love and support.
The Undefeated (2000)
The Undefeated (2000)
In 1950, long after the world has finished fighting World War II, a fight continues behind the newly drawn Iron Curtain: as the Ukrainians keep fighting both Nazi and Soviet abuses, General Roman Shukhevych (Hryhoriy Hladiy) is forced by brutal circumstances and his own sense of honor and duty to lead this effort as an underground war. As portrayed by the film, Shukhevych is a genteel family man who is also a complex character (revolted by ethnic discrimination, a music lover and a military genius) that with his charisma fuels his countrymen with desire for freedom. In the end, Shukhevych's efforts are unable to defeat the Soviets despite paying for his resistance with his life, but they re-enforce Ukrainian patriotism as an underground force until Ukraine finally recovers its freedom from Soviet tyranny.
Branded (2024)
Branded (2024)
A woman struggles with the isolation of being confined as a prisoner in a war-torn country.
Exchange (2022)
Exchange (2022)
How to repay parental debt on the other side of the front line? Why would a doctor kill and when to believe the enemy? How is the war in eastern Ukraine different from any other war in the world? A war drama about the stories of two families, where adult men took up arms and thus crossed their destinies.
Executed Dawns (1995)
Executed Dawns (1995)
Bolshevists aim to set their rules on the lands of the Western Ukraine repeatedly occupied by them. UPA – the partisan army – resists their policy. Civil population becomes a hostage of this war "without rules", and above all – relatives of the insurgents. Invaders and their allies cruelly torture Ukrainian people, but the struggle continues. Irritated, "bolshevists" start evicting people to Siberia. UPA tries to prevent this action, but the forces are not equal... Insurgents can only take revenge and punish the executioners.
Mr. Jones (2019)
Mr. Jones (2019)
In 1933, Welsh journalist Gareth Jones travels to Ukraine, where he experiences the horrors of a famine. Everywhere he goes he meets henchmen of the Soviet secret service who are determined to prevent news about the catastrophe from getting out. Stalin’s forced collectivisation of agriculture has resulted in misery and ruin—the policy is tantamount to mass murder.
The Deadly Alive (2015)
The Deadly Alive (2015)
Everything is destined, isn't it?
Numbers (2020)
Numbers (2020)
Ten figures walk around in a circle. All they have is a number. The “Great Zero” monitors them. Based on a dystopian parable by Oleg Sentsov, this film was created between Kyiv and the Siberian penal colony where Sentsov spent five years as a political prisoner.
Story of R32 (2014)
Story of R32 (2014)
The sad tale of R32, an old obsolete and lonely robot who got replaced by a newer model by its previous owners and now roams the streets alone. He’s running low on repairs but all he needs is a helpful hand.
Orange Love (2007)
Orange Love (2007)
A sickly man places a classified ad in which he offers a huge downtown loft apartment, utilities, food and eventual ownership of the flat with just one proviso: the couple who moves in must love each other so much that they can remain in the flat all day until the old man’s death. If one of them leaves, the deal is off. Enter the pale and auburn-haired Katya, a cellist who meets photographer Roman, a handsomely muscular young man.
Obitnytsia (1992)
Obitnytsia (1992)
Love triangle revealed during a wedding is set to a backdrop of Ukrainian history and tradition, with questions of honor and faithfulness asked.
Such Beautiful People (2014)
Such Beautiful People (2014)
This gorgeous movie—artfully composed in a muted sandy palette with exquisite attention to visual detail—takes place on the shores of the Black Sea in Crimea, where a group of neighbors seek tranquility and fulfillment fishing and striving to live lives of meaning, outside the bustle and cynicism of city life. This is a film about universal themes of human interaction and love and explores the full range of human desires and relationships. Such Beautiful People is a gentle story of gentle people striving to make their lives better, to find true happiness, and to better understand one another. (via cinema.indiana.edu)
Let's Dance (2019)
Let's Dance (2019)
Nikita, talented young dancer, enters Let's Dance competition to earn money for his brother's surgery but a brief encounter with a famous singer Liza, who hosts the competition, puts his chances of winning and even life at risk.
Why I'm Alive (2021)
Why I'm Alive (2021)
Mariupol. Pre-war life in a small Ukrainian town on the shore of the Azov Sea, with a good family life, quarrelsome neighbors, amateur opera, denunciations to the NKVD, and a dance floor in the city garden, the persecution of religion and, of course, with love.
Song of Songs (2015)
Song of Songs (2015)
1905. A Jewish Shtetl. Shimek and Buzya are two 10 year olds. Of course, she is a princess and he is a prince. They live in the same yard, in neighboring palaces. What Buzya really means to him, Shimek begins to understand only years later when, far away from home, when he receives the news that Buzya is about to be married off.
Inseparable (2014)
Inseparable (2014)
It's April of 1986. Pripyat, Ukraine. A core meltdown occurred at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Power Plant. Over thirty people died during the blast but the estimated death toll as a result of the radiation fallout will reach a four-digit number. This accident will be considered the world's largest ecological disaster. Set at ground zero of a catastrophe, this film will reveal the details of the Chernobyl event. The shocking news of the explosion at the nuclear plant has spread, as the world watched the tragedy in fear and confusion. Hearts went out to those who displayed selfless courage and integrity in the initial efforts to stabilize the reactor power. But some were too busy being in love to notice what had just happened in nearby Chernobyl. The disaster has faded into the background - This is an account of love and loss, bravery and supernatural stoicism in the face of unbeatable odds.
We Are Here. We Are Close (2021)
We Are Here. We Are Close (2021)
Alex, an experienced surgeon, makes a mistake in the diagnosis of his seven-year-old godson. The boy dies on the operating table. Stunned, the man tenders his resignation. One autumn morning he is sitting on the riverbank in a favourite place where he used to fish with his godson. Suddenly he notices the figure of a shapely semi-naked girl emerging from the fog. She is shivering with cold. Alex spontaneously offers his help, and thus becomes part of an incredible adventure story.
Kings of Rap (2023)
Kings of Rap (2023)
A seventeen-year-old village school graduate, a guy nicknamed Kazan, dreams of becoming a famous rapper and winning the heart of Sveta. For the sake of his dream, he is willing to risk everything, but circumstances steer his life in a different direction.
Dovbush (2023)
Dovbush (2023)
In the early eighteenth century, foreign rule means dark times for the Hutsuls of the Carpathians. The two Dovbush brothers become opryshkos - mountain outlaws. But the two brothers become enemies - one cares only about money, the other - Oleksa - fights for his people. The Carpathians are convulsed with a wave of uprisings. The aristocracy uses its military might to try to kill Dovbush and destroy his legend. But Dovbush outwits them. The desperate lords devise a devious plan and attack the invincible outlaw's Achilles heel - his love for his childhood sweetheart, Marichka. Who will be the assassin to attack the Opryshko whose immense strength and bravery inspired folk tales? Will the lords' treacherous plan destroy the hero before he can lead his people to freedom?
