Is it an alternative and visceral new documentary about Ukraine? Is it a time travel film of sorts, as its title suggests? Is it “a portrait of resistance and collective memory in which personal loss and political history become inseparable,” as one description reads? Well, Time Machine Maidan is all of that – and more.
The film, which takes a first-person, POV-type approach and is created with the goal of immersing audiences, comes from directors Roman Liubyi (War Note, Iron Butterfly) and Volodymyr Tykhyy (One Day in Ukraine, The Green Jacket) and world premieres in the international competition lineup of the Sheffield DocFest on June 11.
It builds a narrative bridge between the Maidan Revolution, also known as the Revolution of Dignity, that started in Ukraine in late 2013 and continued until February 2014, to today’s war started by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sparked by then-president Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to abandon European Union membership in favor of closer ties with Russia, the Maidan uprising ultimately led to his ouster.
The doc is “reinterpreting the Maidan Revolution through the lens of the present and [the] experience of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” highlight the press notes. “The film creates a haunting bridge between the bloody confrontations of 2013 and today’s battlefields, with Maidan standing as a pivotal moment in recent Ukrainian history.”
