Ukrainians would like to watch comedies – but for now their culture is defined by war

BBC:

I’ve never heard an audience so silent.

When the credits rolled on a screening of 2000 metres to Andriivka, no-one in the Kyiv cinema moved. Their popcorn and beer were mostly untouched.

The documentary by Mstyslav Chernov is a frontline film so intense you feel like you’re trapped in the terrifying trenches alongside the soldiers.

Watching that in Ukraine, a country under fire, the intensity is multiplied.

At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, as society mobilised to defend itself, Ukraine had little capacity for culture. Venues were closed or repurposed, some were attacked, and artists became refugees or soldiers.

Almost four years on, the arts are back – but everything is now permeated by the war.