Cinema Libre has tabbed July 18 as the street date for both
DVD and Blu-ray edition of producer Igor Lopatonok’s Ukraine on Fire.
Most Americans can’t find Ukraine on a map and most can’t
quite understand what it is all about, this thing with Russia … is it part of
Russia? It is confusing as the country
has been schizophrenic in nature since at least World War II, and certainly
earlier.
To understand this, you must know that Ukraine has been at
the crossroads of empires, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, Poland and
it fought on both sides in World War I — Ukrainians fighting Ukrainians
(schizophrenic indeed). The Nazis were
openly welcomed in the western half of the country at the start of World War II
and used their alliance with the Germans to slaughter tens of thousand of their
neighbors, the Poles, who were their friends during the 20s and 30s.
The eastern half of the country joined the Soviets in
fighting the Nazis. It was a bloodbath …
in the end as many as eight million Ukrainians died. And then the country was behind the Iron
Curtain until the summer of 1990 (forgotten by the West).
Lopantonok’s Ukraine on Fire delves into the
horrors of today’s Ukraine. A country
divided … the Russian speaking-half (eastern) was simply annexed by Vladimir
Putin (The Crimea), while chaos reigns in the western half (Kiev at the center of
it) … and, under Lopantonok’s view, the US and European Union have been just as
bad; just as devious in their dealing with the country.
With fellow filmmaker Oliver Stone’s help, Lopantonok’s Ukraine
on Fire looks to find an audience to expose the corruption and
international intrigues that once again has brought death and destruction to
Ukraine.
Bonus features include deleted scenes and documentary
filmmaker John Beck Hofmann’s 2014 film, Maidan Massacre (a look at the
February of 2014 massacre in Kiev).
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