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We’ve reached the end season four! Thank you as always for listening along. We’ll be back in the autumn, so look out for that and make sure you’re subscribed in your podcast app of choice so you don’t miss out. In the meantime, we want to hear from you. Do you have questions, comments, complaints, or suggestions for the show? You can now email them to us at [email protected]. Get in touch ahead of the new season. We’re closing out season four with a look at a fascinating and misunderstood part of Ukraine: the Donbas. This resource-rich region in the east of the country was celebrated as the industrial heartland of the Soviet Union, but since 2014 has become synonymous with destruction and war after more than a decade of Russian aggression and occupation. It’s a region that has been subject to much controversy, within Ukraine as well as internationally, but its vibrant and diverse history is too often overlooked. It’s this history that Victoria Donovan has set out to capture in her fantastic new book, Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East. Victoria draws on her extensive travel and research in Donbas to move past the clichés and give a human perspective on events. Host Sam Goff sat down with her to discuss the book, and to explore how film has been used and abused in creating an image of the region. We’ve put together a playlist of some of the films discussed in this episode for Klassiki subscribers, which you can find here. Buy Life in Spite of Everything: Tales from the Ukrainian East here. Read an interview with Freefilmers here and explore their recent work here. Explore documentary material from the Donbas in the Urban Media Archive here. Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.

For this episode, we’re dipping back in to the archive of writing on the Klassiki Journal for a profile of the great Romanian director Lucian Pintilie, whose provocative, modernist work bridges the gap between communist-era filmmaking and the New Wave that has defined Romanian cinema in the 21st century. Subject to censorship and exile, Pintilie returned to his homeland in the 1990s to cement his legacy and influence a new generation of directors. Read the original piece here and make sure to check out Pintilie’s classic satire Reconstruction as well as our collection of classic Romanian titles. Get in touch: [email protected] Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.

For this episode, we’re dipping back in to the archive of writing on the Klassiki Journal for a profile of the Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Bondarchuk, whose deadpan, absurdist comedies cut through the myth-making around his country by investigating the “no man’s land” of his native Kherson region. Bondarchuk’s recent feature The Editorial Office was completed during the full-scale invasion by Russia and speaks with particular clarity to the challenges that Ukraine was facing before the war and will face after it. Read the original piece here and watch Bondarchuk’s 2018 comedy Volcano on Klassiki now. Get in touch: [email protected] Sign up for a free 7-day trial at klassiki.online.