Holocaust Documentary Hits Theaters in Ukraine

The much talked about Holocaust documentary “Spell Your Name,” produced by legendary American director Steven Spielberg and Ukrainian philanthropist Viktor Pinchuk, will be premiering in theaters this week. The film, directed by Ukrainian director Serhiy Bukovsky, focuses on the recollections of victims of Nazi persecution in Ukraine during the Second World War. It was made in cooperation with Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation Institute based at USC in Los Angeles, California. The film had a small premier for the media a few months ago – Spielberg himself came to Kyiv for the occasion. It will finally be shown to wider audiences throughout Ukraine. What’s more, the documentary will be added to the state educational program. In autumn the Ukrainian Teachers Association of History and Social Studies is going to offer seminars and present a DVD version of the film, along with a supplemental manual, to teachers at 15 Kyiv schools. After the screenings at cinemas, the film may then be distributed to television stations. The documentary constitutes the first part of a trilogy which will be dedicated to the “three great tragedies of the Ukrainian nation,” as Viktor Pinchuk says – the Holocaust, Holodomor and Chornobyl disaster.

Film Synopsis

Produced by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, made possible by a generous grant from Victor Pinchuk, and in continued partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Spell Your Name is a feature-length documentary about the Holocaust in Ukraine.

Ukrainian film director, Sergey Bukovsky crafted the film using Ukrainian and Russian-language testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation Institute archive and new footage shot on location in Ukraine.

Director Sergey Bukovsky takes the viewer on a journey of discovery as he and several Ukrainian students absorb the testimony of local people who escaped brutal execution and those who rescued friends and neighbors during the Holocaust.

A collection of men and women share the details of their experiences, and we are afforded a glimpse of modern day Ukraine: the ethnic stereotypes that continue to exist and the manner in which Post-Soviet society is dealing with the question of how to memorialize the sites where tens of thousands of Jewish families and others were executed and thrown into mass graves.

For more information, visit the official site at spellyourname.org.