Babyn Yar film wins award at Cannes

A film about the two-day Nazi massacre of 33,000 Ukrainian Jews at Babyn Yar near Kyiv has won the prestigious Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Eye Documentary Award.

Directed by Sergei Loznitsa and shot with the support of the new Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre, the documentary tells the story of the massacres in the forested ravine 80 years ago.

It was released earlier this month as part of the film festival’s build-up, with Ukrainian audiences first expected to see it in the autumn, during events to commemorate the 80th anniversary.

Based entirely on archive footage, the film reconstructs the events leading up to the organised killing of 33,771 Jews in German-occupied Kyiv on 29 and 30 September 1941, and what happened next.

Loznitsa said: “I hope this award lets us reach wider audiences worldwide and this film will be screened in Ukraine and will inspire a meaningful discussion. This is particularly important for the country.”

The Babyn Yar’s artistic director, Ilya Khrzhanovsky, said: “This film has received dozens of invitations to the world’s largest festivals, as well as distribution offers from streaming platforms and distributors. 

“Audiences in different countries and continents will recognise the dangers of such hatred. The relevance of this film in our time is indisputable.”