Russian missile strike on Kyiv destroys Ukraine's oldest film costume collection

In the early hours of 15 June, a Russian missile strike on Kyiv destroyed the Dovzhenko film studio, Ukraine's most significant bearer of film heritage, among other targets. The fire consumed the nation's oldest and largest film costume collection, and studio buildings were damaged. During the attack, the roof of the main cathedral of the world-renowned Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra also caught fire.

In the early hours of 15 June, a Russian missile strike on Kyiv struck across almost all districts of the city. Among the destruction, two culturally exceptional objects stand out: the roof of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list, caught fire, and the Dovzhenko film studio's costume workshop in the same city was completely destroyed.

A century of history turned to ash

Aleksandr Rodnyansky, a film producer born in Kyiv, wrote about the strike as a deeply personal loss. He studied film direction at Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, whose buildings were located on the Lavra territory. "This cathedral was rebuilt only in 2000, and now Russian forces have set it on fire," he noted, pointing out that Soviet NKVD had blown up the same cathedral in 1941 while retreating.

Rodnyansky described the Dovzhenko film studio as something more than merely a production enterprise. According to him, the studio's significance to Ukrainian cultural history is comparable to what the legendary Cinecittà means to Rome.

The heart of Ukrainian film history

Founded in 1928, the Dovzhenko film studio has been the birthplace of hundreds of significant films. During the 1960s and 1970s, the studio became the centre of the Ukrainian Poetic Cinema movement, a current that many European critics place on the same level as Italian neorealism and the French New Wave. Sergei Parajanov's "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (1964), Yuri Ilyenko's "Midsummer Eve" (1968) and Leonid Osyka's "Stone Cross" (1968) are but a few works from this era.

In the eyes of Soviet censorship, Poetic Cinema was too "national" and too pro-Ukrainian; films were shelved, banned, and some were shown only in institutes in secret. The movement was gradually reined in through cuts and prohibitions, but the studio continued producing hugely popular films for decades to come.

The strike destroyed the studio's costume workshop along with Ukraine's largest and oldest film costume collection, shattered windows in administrative buildings, and damaged one of Europe's largest sound stages.

A personal loss

Rodnyansky emphasised that for him this is an extraordinarily painful blow: it was in this studio that his father died at the age of 39 from a heart attack. His mother worked there. His own office was once located there.

"This is what Russian 'denazification' and 'demilitarization' look like," the film producer wrote.

The extent of the Kyiv strike is still being clarified; according to reports, almost all districts of the city were hit.