About the Film:

A Rising Fury follows two Ukrainians from the peaceful protest in Kyiv in 2013 to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Pavlo and Svitlana met and fell in love at the Maidan Revolution and were filmed over 8 years with several expeditions to the frontlines of the war. When Russia invaded Crimea and Donbas in 2014, Pavlo lost his family home and joined the Ukrainian military effort. To defend his nation, he engages in deadly firefights against former friends and a close military instructor who join Russian forces. As Svitlana transports food and medical supplies, both find themselves on the battle lines, protecting their land, democracy, and their relationship.

A Rising Fury is the critically acclaimed and 96th Academy Award- qualified feature documentary about the war in Ukraine. A Rising Fury premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and screened at numerous international film festivals. The film is directed by Ukrainian American filmmaker Lesya Kalynska and Ukrainian filmmaker Ruslan Batytskyi. They produced it with TJ Collins (USA) and Jonathan Borge Lie (Norway). The film was nominated for best documentary and other top awards in nine international film festivals, including Stockholm IFF, Warsaw IFF, Oslo Films from the South FF, and Cleveland IFF, and won several awards, including the Supreme Jury Award at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in 2023.

Sponsor(s): Center for European and Russian Studies, Center for World Languages, Department of Slavic, East European & Eurasian Languages & Cultures