Orange Winter

Orange Winter
Directed by Andrei Zagdansky
Release dates
 2007
Running time
 72 minutes
Country United States
Language English, Ukrainian

Orange Winter is a 2007 feature documentary by an independent Ukrainian-American filmmaker Andrei Zagdansky. The documentary deals with the fraudulent presidential election in Ukraine in November 2004 and ensuing days of mass protest, known as the Orange Revolution.

History

In the center of the film are not the political figures, but the "Maidan", literally "square" or "forum" in Ukrainian, the impromptu community of orange clad protesters. After two weeks of protests the Maidan forced authorities to cancel results of the rigged election and to set up a new election. The opposition candidate Victor Yushchenko won the run-off election and became the president of Ukraine.

Orange Winter is more than a mere history lesson. Like Norman Mailer's nonfiction novel The Armies of the Night... this movie characterizes a body politic as a living thing, and charts its internal changes as if it were the protagonist in a drama". Matt Zoller Seitz, The New York Times

While the movie chronicles the first two crucial weeks of the political chaos and civil disobedience in the country, director intertwines scenes from the streets with two opera performances Boris Godunov and La traviata staged during the same time in the City Opera House.

Another cultural reference used in the film is Ukrainian silent classic Earth (1930) by Alexander Dovzhenko which is:

"...invoked as a classic example of Ukrainian revolution... this artistic juxtaposition lends its portrayed events an appropriately mythic tinge"

Rob Humanick, Slant magazine.

Credits

Awards

Film Festival Screenings

See also

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