30 years of independence

A documentary cycle about the modern history of Ukraine (1986-2016 and later)

From which moment in time shall we start counting the years of contemporary history of Ukraine? From the date of declaration of state sovereignty adopted by the Parliament on July 16, 1990? Or from the Declaration of Independence of August 24, 1991? Or maybe we should choose another turning point?

This film project is based on the idea that this turning point was the Chernobyl disaster. It really marked a new era, and, in fact, launched contemporary Ukrainian history. The nation began to wake up. First Chernobyl, and then Chornovil stirred up everybody.

In this fundamental film project, the turbulent events of 1986-2021 (and then on) are seen through the eyes of those who actively participated. A lot of in-depth analysis of socio-economic and political processes, little-known but extremely important facts and circumstances that determined how exactly the history develops, interesting footages and eyewitness acoounts - that is what you find watching this film that is meant to promote further thinking. The contemporary history of Ukraine definitely needs more comprehension, after all.

This series of films is a fundamental multi-year research work of producer Tetyana Suchkova, screenwriter Oleh Bazylevych, and the creative team of Atasov Film Travel studio. The team wanted to create a model of deep, unbiased and systematic socio-political analysis, which is very necessary for understanding modern Ukrainian history and projecting the future developments.

Chernobyl shook up the Ukrainian society which was pretty dormant during the decades of Soviet rule. It began to toss and feventually woke up, and embarked on its new journey - the journey we call the contemporary history of Ukraine. Where has it brought us to? What happened to us along the way? What have we done? Whatdid we fail to accomplish? We make our own mistakes, and we have to correct them ourselves. Therefore, we need not only to remember, but also to understand it all.