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Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival · 2026

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2026

Standing With Ukraine

Programme

9 films

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Camouflage

Ukraine, 2021. 22-year-old Vitaly studies German, dreaming of escaping a country where he no longer feels at home and starting a new life in Germany. A year before Russia’s full-scale invasion, he leaves for Munich... when war breaks out his mother and sister flee to him.

(Country: Germany, Ukraine; Year: 2026; Director: Mykyta Gibalenko; Writer: Mykyta Gibalenko, Sharyhan Osman; Stars: Artur Aliiev, Yelyzaveta Tsilyk, Anna Yaremchuk-Bobalo, Klara Lange, Alina Danko, Andrii Kudin)

I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming

The love of Olya and Oleh, a young queer Ukrainian couple, is put to the test when one partner’s gender transition collides with Russia's full-scale invasion.

(Country: Germany, Ukraine; Year: 2026; Director: Isabelle Stever; Writer: Anna Melikova; Stars: Tania Myronyshena, Markus Bright, Iryna Mak, Viktor Zhdanov, Maiia Sobolevska, Maria Myronyshena, Oleksandr Rudynskyi)

Living On (Gyventi)

The director volunteered to drive cars carrying medical aid to Ukraine’s frontlines. Between August 2024 and June 2026, he documented his experiences on fifteen dangerous missions using his own equipment.

(Country: Lithuania, Ukraine; Year: 2026; Director: Nerijus Milerius; Writer: Nerijus Milerius)

Slava

Story about the Trial of Stepan Bandera’s assassin and the power of truth.

(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2026; Director: Denys Sobolev; Writer: Taras Borovok, Dmytro Naumov, Denis Sobolev, Vitalii Dokalenko; Stars: Yurii Khvostenko, Liliya Matviyenko)

Slava: Shooting With Music

After completing more than 200 concerts for the troops, Slava was encouraged to take his band on a worldwide tour in order to bolster the morale of Ukrainian refugees living abroad. An international coalition of artists stepped-up to support them.

(Country: UK; Year: 2026; Director: Jacqui Morris, David Morris)

To Die To Live

In 2014, three young men with no military experience whatsoever volunteered to go to the front line in eastern Ukraine. They spent two years there, near Donetsk, Luhansk and Shirokyne. Then they returned home and tried to live like ordinary people again: work, family, evenings with friends. But they cannot quite manage it.

(Country: Latvia, Ukraine, Slovakia; Year: 2026; Director: Yuliia Hontaruk; Writer: Yuliia Hontaruk)

Traces

Documentary shines a light on Ukrainian women who, after surviving conflict-related sexual violence and torture during the Russian war of aggression, refuse to remain silent.

(Country: Ukraine, Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Alisa Kovalenko, Marysia Nikitiuk)

Vesna

In a Russian-occupied town in southeastern Ukraine, where burying the dead has been forbidden, the church of a young priest, Andriy, has been turned into a morgue for executed Ukrainian civilians. As the occupation tightens its grip, Andriy quietly begins to resist, secretly returning the bodies to their families at great personal risk.

(Country: France, Lithuania, Estonia; Year: 2026; Director: Rostislav Kirpicenko; Stars: Kęstutis Cicėnas, Bartas Ždanovičius, Anastasiia Pustovit, Valentinas Novopolskis, Viečeslav Lukjanov, Daumantas Ciunis)

Wings (Asas)

A Ukrainian family that fled to Portugal to escape the war is trying to start a new life.

(Country: Portugal, Ukraine; Year: 2026; Director: Ana Rocha de Sousa; Writer: Ana Rocha de Sousa; Stars: Lúcia Moniz, Leonor Silveira, Oksana Tkach, Elsa Valentim, Hugo Bentes)