You're reading: Top WWII movies involving Ukraine

As the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazism in Europe approaches on May 8, the Kyiv Post picks our choices for the five best movies that feature Ukraine in World War II. All the films are available with English translation or subtitles.

‘Between Hitler and Stalin – Ukraine in World War II: The Untold Story’ (Canada, 2003)

The documentary tells about the struggle between the Nazi and Soviet regimes in a chronological order, from Ukrainian perspective. It was produced by the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Center.

The movie features different aspects of the war: Ukraine as a battlefield of Eastern Europe, the tragedy of Jews, Ukrainian Insurgent Army, forcible repatriation of Ukrainians to the Soviet Union and Ukrainians captured to be slave workers (Ostarbeiters).

The film was produced and directed by Slawko Nowytski and narrated by Jack Palance. It contains eyewitness memories, documentary material, rare film footage, photos and documents obtained from numerous sources.

Norman Davies, an English historian, commented in the film: “Many people in the West don’t realize that Ukrainians, like many of their neighbors, like the Poles, were fighting both against (Adolf) Hitler and against (Joseph) Stalin. And after the Soviet victory in 1945, there was a remnant of the wartime resistance continuing, attempting to resist the Soviet takeover.”

Canadian documentary “Between Hitler and Stalin - Ukraine in World War II: The Untold Story” (2003) tells the story of WWII from Ukraine’s perspective.

Canadian documentary “Between Hitler and Stalin – Ukraine in World War II: The Untold Story” (2003) tells the story of WWII from Ukraine’s perspective.

‘Golden September. The Galician Chronicles 1939-1941’ (Ukraine, 2010)

This Ukrainian documentary film tells about the occupation of western Ukraine by Soviet troops in September 1939. Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Soviet forces occupied territories and absorbed them to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic, redrawing the borders of Europe.

The movie was directed by Taras Himich and produced by Taras Choliy. The score included songs by Ukrainian a capella band Pikkardiyska Tertsiya.

In Soviet times all the information about the events featured in the documentary was classified.

‘Ukraine in Flames’ (‘Battle for our Soviet Ukraine’) (USSR, 1943)

This Soviet documentary was filmed during World War II by famous director Oleksandr Dovzhenko, whose silent film “Zemlya” (“Land”) was named as one of the 12 greatest movies of all time by a group of 117 film historians and critics at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair.

Released in 1943, “Ukraine in Flames” was a straightforward Soviet propaganda. Dovzhenko’s work was censored and the movie was a compromise between the director and the Soviet regime.

The film’s role was to encourage people to fight for Soviet Ukraine, as the 1943 was a turning point. That year, Soviet troops launched an offensive in the western front and started the liberation of the occupied territories.

The film includes battle footage produced by Germans and seized by Soviet soldiers.

‘In Darkness’ (Poland, 2011)

The drama film is based on a true story. It was written by David F. Shamoon and directed by Agnieszka Holland. The movie appeared on the big screens in 2011 and was nominated for an Oscar in the foreign film category.

The film tells the story of Jews during the German occupation of Lviv. The main hero, Leopold Socha knew the city’s sewer system and helped Jews to escape the Holocaust for 14 months.

The film is a Polish-Canadian-German coproduction and based on a book “In the Sewers of Lvov” (1990) by Robert Marshall.

‘Haytarma’ (Ukraine, 2013)

Shot in Crimean Tatar language, the movie tells a tragic story of the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet regime in 1944.

“Haytarma” is a Crimean Tatar dance, its name literally meaning “return” in Crimean Tatar.

Movie’s protagonist Amet Khan Sultan, a Crimean Tatar fighter pilot awarded with the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, comes home for a brief break from the fighting only to witness the eviction of his nation.

The movie was released in 2013 and directed by Akhtem Seitablaev. Many of the Crimean Tatars in the movie were real victims of the deportation.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Torhan can be reached at [email protected]