The travels of the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival will begin on 13 October in Zalishchyky and, over the following weeks, will pass through Husiatyn, Chortkiv, Zavodske, Ternopil, Kremenets, Vyshnivets, Berezhany, Hrymailiv, and other cities of the Ternopil region. We will present live and online 10 film stories selected from the programme of the 22nd Docudays UA film festival in Kyiv, and talk about our rare resources, the power of interaction in the struggle for a world of freedom and democracy, as well as human rights, empathy, and humanity as its foundation.
Theme
So, the central theme of the 22nd Docudays UA is “Rare Resource”. Associatively, this name appeals to agreements between Ukraine and the USA on the joint development of Ukrainian subsoil resources, concluded in the spring of this year: the Agreement between the governments of the USA and Ukraine on the creation of the US-Ukraine Investment Fund for Reconstruction, as well as two secret agreements: “on limited partnership” and on the creation of a “General Partner”. The content of these agreements remains confidential, so it is impossible to discuss it substantively.
However, already today we must realise that the risks existing in the sphere of subsoil use lie in several dimensions: these are the classified texts of interstate agreements, which directly contradicts the Constitution and laws of Ukraine and causes justifiable fears regarding conditions that may threaten Ukraine's interests. This also involves possible neglect of issues of environmental safety – after all, extractive activity belongs to those that have a significant negative impact on the environment. The result of the activity of many subsoil users in the world is significant social and ecological troubles: pollution of the environment, diseases caused by such pollution, forced resettlement of people from the territories of deposits, destruction of natural landscapes, economic decline affecting both traditional farming and high technologies, etc.
But the theme “Rare Resource” itself can prompt us to discuss – what can genuinely be considered a valuable and rare resource in Ukraine that is worth protecting and multiplying? After all, a war of attrition has been going on for the fourth year, in which the country that possesses greater resources has the chance to win.
So, in our travels and meetings with the audience, we will talk about our rare resources, the power of interaction in the struggle for a world of freedom and democracy, as well as respect for human dignity, human rights, empathy, and humanity as the foundations of this free world.
Film Programme
We have selected 10 documentary films from 11 countries of the world from the 22nd Docudays UA programme for the Travelling festival.
These films focus on our subjectivity and the struggle for freedom, justice, and the preservation of human dignity even in the most difficult circumstances, contemplate themes of history and memory, investigate how human choices affect one's life and how one person can influence the lives of others. They resonate with the experience and challenges we are going through, prompting deep reflection and discussion.
In the format of short film days, we will present the Ukrainian film “How I Spent My Summer Holidays” by Antonio Lukich – a tender, but in places painful film, in which pupils of our schools on 1st September share memories of the summer and dreams of a peaceful future.
Still from the film “How I Spent My Summer Holidays”
Also included in this selection are foreign films close to our context. The film “Last Song from Kabul” by directors Kevin Macdonald and Ruhi Hamid will tell about students of a music school in Afghanistan who do not abandon their love for music despite the unbearable situation in the country, whose authorities deny girls the right to education.
Still from the film “Last Song from Kabul”
The third film from the mentioned selection will be the phenomenal animation work by Nathan Fegan “The Song in the Heart of the Valley” – stories of three prisoners in the USA serving sentences in solitary confinement cells.
Still from the film “The Song in the Heart of the Valley”
Pupils of the Zalishchyky State Gymnasium – the best school in the Ternopil region according to the results of external independent evaluation of graduates – will have the opportunity to be the first to become acquainted with the short film programme. It will also be seen by students of the Husiatyn Professional College of the Ivan Puluj Ternopil National Technical University and the Chortkiv Higher Vocational School. Welcome!
A separate special event of the festival, which we will present in the auditoriums of the mentioned educational institutions, will be the author's presentation dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe “50 Years of the Helsinki Final Act: History, Present, Perspectives”.
Four films from this year's Travelling Docudays UA programme can be viewed online. One of them is “Paper Country” by French director Marion Boé. The film follows lawyer Melanie Le Verger, who has been legally assisting unaccompanied foreign minors for twenty years, and reminds us that the Human Being, their dignity and rights, must always be at the centre of a democratic society. A human being – not as a resource for achieving any other political or military goals, but as the highest value in society.
This film will be available to watch and discuss online by the audience of employees of legal aid institutions in the Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, and Chernivtsi regions, which are subordinate to the Western Interregional Centre for Providing Free Secondary Legal Aid.
Still from the film “Paper Country”
Several festival events will be available for attendance by all interested viewers in the auditoriums of public libraries. Of course, Docudays UA travels this year as well will not bypass our long-term partners – in Chortkiv this is the “Library on Zelena”, where a Docudays UA film club has been operating for 11 years. In the regional centre, this is the Ternopil Regional Universal Scientific Library.
In the “Art Garage” of the “Library on Zelena” on 18 October, we will show the touching autobiographical film “Glass, My Unfulfilled Life” by director Rogier Kappers from the Netherlands. The film received the “Golden Alexander” award from the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Poster for the film “Glass, My Unfulfilled Life”
Among other films distinguished at leading world festivals, the programme of Travelling Docudays UA includes a film that provides space for thoughts on the nature of commemoration – “Fiume o Morte!” by Croatian director Igor Bezinović. The film received the “Tiger” award and the FIPRESCI prize at the International Rotterdam Film Festival 2025.
This brilliant cinematic experiment, created using documentary and feature film techniques, investigates and contemplates the history of a city that Italians called Fiume, and Croats – Rijeka. The author paves the way for understanding this history through the memory of the city's residents, mixing archival photos, theatrical reconstructions, expert comments, and carnival absurdity.
After watching this film, you understand how much the history of Fiume-Rijeka is very similar to the stories of other border cities: Lemberg – Lviv, Stanislaviv – Ivano-Frankivsk, Tarnopol – Ternopil... Residents and guests of our regional centre will have the opportunity to see it in the main library of the region.
This film, like the previous one, will also be shown online. And in a live audience, we will present it at the Ternopil Regional Universal Scientific Library on 21 October.
Still from the film “Fiume o Morte!”
In the reading hall of the region's main library, we will present another Dutch, but very close to Ukrainians, poignant and thoughtful documentary story “My Golden Child” by young director Maarten de Schutter. His mother, Martina de Schutter, died tragically in July 2014, in the Malaysian Boeing MH17 shot down by Russian war criminals. Now Maarten is trying to preserve her memory and live on.
Still from the film “My Golden Child”
On the day of the screening of this film, another special event of the festival will take place – a legal commentary on the historic decision of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights on the interstate complaint of Ukraine and the Netherlands against the Russian Federation dated 9 July 2025 in the form of an author's presentation “Fiat iustitia! – Let Justice Be Done!”.
The programme of Travelling Docudays UA – 2025 will traditionally include a visit to the Volodymyr Hnatiuk Ternopil National Pedagogical University on 20 October. Here, we will offer audiences of students and lecturers a screening and discussion with experts of the film “My Sextortion Diary”. Spanish director Patricia Franquesa filmed that “diary” from the day her laptop with intimate photos was stolen to the moment when, finally, not waiting for successful investigative actions from the police, she was able to stop the online persecution, blackmail, and extortion of money herself. The film convinces us of how important it is to dare to take the situation and one's own fate into one's own hands. By and large, democracy is also rooted in the ability of people to take responsibility for their own fate and the fate of the country.
“My Diary...” was awarded the “Gaudí” award for the best documentary film – the main prize of Catalonia, the laureate of which is chosen annually in Barcelona.
After the film screening, we will talk about how to prevent sexual blackmail and violence on the Internet from the point of view of an educator, a lawyer, and a psychologist.
This festival event is taking place within the framework of the all-Ukrainian information campaign “Sexual violence on the Internet: how to protect children”.
Still from the film “My Sextortion Diary”
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Human Rights Component of the Festival
This year, Travelling Docudays UA will be special in that it will have an ambassador – a person who is the embodiment of a defender of human rights and democratic values. He will be the well-known journalist and human rights defender, veteran, co-founder of “Hromadske Radio” and the ZMINA Human Rights Centre, member of the board of the Ukrainian branch of Amnesty International, co-founder of the organisation “Without Borders”, which took care of refugee protection, long-time moderator of festival events, and jury member at Docudays UA — 2025 Maksym Butkevych. In the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion, Maksym voluntarily mobilised into the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but already in the summer of 2022 fell into Russian captivity, where he spent 2 years and 4 months. Every year during the Docudays UA festival, we organised public actions demanding his release. And finally, we learned with joy that Maksym had returned home.
Maksym Butkevych, journalist, human rights defender, war veteran
And recently we received another piece of joyous news – Maksym Butkevych became the first citizen of Ukraine to be awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. The prize is awarded annually for outstanding achievements in the field of human rights by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe together with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation. At various times, its laureates have included human rights defenders: Ales Bialiatski, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Oyub Titiev, Maria Kalesnikava, Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Currently, Maksym Butkevych is one of the most powerful voices of Ukrainian prisoners of war and those people who have already been released from captivity but still need support. Together with the human rights organisation “Principle of Hope”, coordinated by Maksym, Travelling Docudays UA is initiating a charitable collection for the rehabilitation of Ukrainians, both military and civilians, released from Russian captivity.
Please, if it is possible for you, support the collection with a donation. Any contribution of yours – 5, 10, or 50 hryvnias – is valuable. You can do this using the QR code that you see in this image.
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You can follow the news of Travelling Docudays UA in Ukraine on the official website – https://travelling.docudays.ua/
Look for announcements of festival events in the Ternopil region on our Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/DocudaysTernopil2015
The programme of our travels can be downloaded at this link.
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Organisers of Travelling Docudays UA in Ukraine: Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, NGO “Docudays”, Charity Organisation “Charity and Health Fund”, and NGO “Centre for Modern Information Technologies and Visual Arts”.
Regional partners of Docudays UA in the Ternopil region – non-governmental organisations: “Helsinki Initiative-XXI”, ecological NGO “Green World”, and Ternopil Youth NGO “Men's Adaptation Centre”.
Media partners: Periodical “Zolota Pektoral” and TV Channel “TV4”.
The 22nd Travelling Docudays UA is held with the financial support of the European Union, the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, and International Media Support.
The opinions, conclusions, or recommendations set out in this text do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, the governments, or charitable organisations of these countries. Responsibility for the content of the publication lies solely with its authors.