Vesna

After having a special screening at Cannes this year, this will be the UK Premiere. 

The story is set in a Ukrainian town under Russian occupation, a young priest Andriy wages a quiet and deeply personal battle against the forces surrounding him. When his church becomes a makeshift morgue, Andriy is confronted with the bodies of civilians executed by the occupying forces. Refusing to allow the dead to disappear into anonymous mass graves, he secretly sets about identifying them and returning them to their families for dignified burial.

What begins as an act of compassion becomes an extraordinary form of resistance. Working alongside a small group of townspeople, Andriy risks discovery with every body he recovers, while the occupying forces tighten their control and suspicion grows within the community.

Set against the stark, frozen landscape of wartime Ukraine, Vesna is a quietly powerful drama about courage, faith and the enduring importance of human dignity. Rather than depicting the conflict through the spectacle of battle, the film focuses on the intimate realities of occupation – grief, fear, memory and the need to honour those who have been lost.

Restrained yet emotionally resonant, Vesna reminds us that resistance can take many forms, and that sometimes the simple act of remembering a name can be an act of defiance.

Curator and local filmmaker Anna Nekrasova will introduce the film. 

Synopsis:

In an occupied Ukrainian town, a young priest secretly identifies civilians executed by Russian forces and returns their bodies to grieving families. As the occupation intensifies and danger closes in, his quiet acts of compassion become a courageous form of resistance, defending the dead’s dignity while risking everything to preserve their memory.