The Guardian is celebrating Ukrainian cinema with a specially curated selection of documentaries. Presented in collaboration with the Kyiv-based Docudays UA film festival, these award-winning movies offer  insight into the modern history of the country, its culture and its people. 

Having lived through the Maidan revolution, a pivotal moment in Ukrainian history, art has become a way for the radical cabaret act Dakh Daughters to reflect on the 2014 uprising while facing the harsh realities of today with wisdom and hope, as seen in Roses.Film-Cabaret, directed by Irena Stetsenko.  

In This Rain Will Never Stop, directed by Alina Gorlova, we meet 20-year-old Andriy Suleyman, who escaped Syria with his family and found refuge in Ukraine, his mother’s homeland. Shot in striking black and white, the film is a sophisticated vision of war zones and the scars they leave.

School #3, directed by Yelizaveta Smith and Georg Genoux, invites pupils in Donbas to talk about the things that matter to them