Eurodonbas

A Film by Kornii Hrytsiuk
Visual and Performing Arts

Donbas is a region in Eastern Ukraine currently recognized worldwide due to the fierce war with Russia. However, only some are well-acquainted that at the end of the 19th century, Donbas was the center of Belgian, German, French, British, and American settlements. This region housed entrepreneurs from different countries who built architecture and enterprises and introduced progressive technologies to this region. After the revolution of 1917 and the USSR's rise to power, the factories and private property were taken from the European and North American settlers, destroying the memory of European history there.

The documentary film 'Eurodonbas' shows the European heritage of such cities as Mariupol, Lysychansk, Druzhkivka, and New York village in the Donetsk region just before the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War. These places of Donbas are well-recognized in the world mass media, as Russian missiles almost destroyed them during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The film was shown in one of the city's few experimental and independent cinemas, the Schikaneder. 

Kornii Hrytsiuk is a documentary filmmaker & scriptwriter based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Kornii has twelve years of experience directing and editing historical & investigative documentaries and podcasts that have premiered at international festivals and streaming platforms. His previous titles, with strong social messaging, were devoted to his native region of Donbas. 

Partnership

The film was presented as part of the conference "Ukraine's Altered Landscapes: Losing and Recovering Alterity in the Face of War" organized by the Ukraine in European Dialogue Program at the Institute for Human Sciences in cooperation with RECET.