Yuliya V. Ladygina—Beyond the Battlefield: Klondike and the Remaking of War Cinema
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📣 Join us on October 7 for the opening event of a three-part series organized by Jacyk Distinguished Fellow Yuliya V. Ladygina. The series explores Ukrainian war cinema through a lecture and two film screenings. Since 2014, Russia’s war against Ukraine has unfolded across territory, images, information, historical narratives, and competing claims to political reality. In this lecture, Dr. Ladygina will draw on her monograph project, 𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢’𝘴 𝘞𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦, and use a close reading of Maryna Er Gorbach’s 2022 film 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦 to support her argument that war cinema has itself become part of an expanded battlefield. Chaired by Oleh Kotsyuba, this talk serves as a foundation for the film screenings on November 5 and December 3.
💙 "Beyond the Battlefield: Maryna Er Gorbach’s 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦 and the Remaking of War Cinema"
💡 Since 2014, Russia’s war against Ukraine has unfolded not only across territory but also through images, information, historical narratives, and competing claims to political reality. Drawing on her ongoing book project on contemporary Ukrainian war cinema, Dr. Ladygina will argue that cinema no longer simply represents war but has itself become part of an expanded battlefield. She will show how Ukrainian films participate in struggles over testimony and evidence, historical memory and political legitimacy, cultural sovereignty and the authority to define reality. The lecture will trace how this changing relationship between warfare and representation is transforming the boundaries of war cinema, extending the genre beyond combat into media networks and archives, landscapes, domestic spaces, and individual bodies.
Dr. Ladygina will develop this argument through a close reading of Maryna Er Gorbach’s 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦 (2022), set in the Donbas in the summer of 2014 against the backdrop of the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Turning away from the spectacular violence conventionally associated with war cinema, Er Gorbach centers the everyday, embodied experience of her pregnant heroine, Irka. Dr. Ladygina will examine how the film’s distinctive treatment of domestic space and landscape, sound, and the female body makes visible forms of violence, agency, survival, and resistance that conventional images of combat often leave unseen. She will then consider how 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦, while firmly grounded in the specific experience of Russia’s war against Ukraine, reaches beyond Ukrainian national cinema to challenge established conventions and expand the boundaries of the war film itself. Finally, the lecture will turn to the film’s international circulation and the ways in which 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦 itself entered the informational and cultural struggle over how Russia’s war against Ukraine would be understood beyond Ukraine.
💛 Yuliya V. Ladygina is the Jacyk Distinguished Fellow at HURI and Associate Professor of Slavic and Global & International Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her current monograph project, Screens of Defiance: The Reel Story of Russia’s War against Ukraine, argues that contemporary Ukrainian war cinema rethinks the war-film genre by exposing the hybrid nature of modern warfare, where military violence is intertwined with information warfare, propaganda, and the politics of historical memory.
📍 ONLINE AND ON CAMPUS | CGIS-Knafel Building, 3rd Floor, Room K-354
🗓️ Wednesday, October 7 at 5:30 – 7:00 pm EDT
🔗 LEARN MORE: https://www.huri.harvard.edu/event/yuliya-ladygina-beyond-battlefield-maryna-er-gorbachs-klondike-and-remaking-war-cinema
💙 HURI | Petro Jacyk Seminar
💙 "Beyond the Battlefield: Maryna Er Gorbach’s 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦 and the Remaking of War Cinema"
💡 Since 2014, Russia’s war against Ukraine has unfolded not only across territory but also through images, information, historical narratives, and competing claims to political reality. Drawing on her ongoing book project on contemporary Ukrainian war cinema, Dr. Ladygina will argue that cinema no longer simply represents war but has itself become part of an expanded battlefield. She will show how Ukrainian films participate in struggles over testimony and evidence, historical memory and political legitimacy, cultural sovereignty and the authority to define reality. The lecture will trace how this changing relationship between warfare and representation is transforming the boundaries of war cinema, extending the genre beyond combat into media networks and archives, landscapes, domestic spaces, and individual bodies.
Dr. Ladygina will develop this argument through a close reading of Maryna Er Gorbach’s 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦 (2022), set in the Donbas in the summer of 2014 against the backdrop of the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Turning away from the spectacular violence conventionally associated with war cinema, Er Gorbach centers the everyday, embodied experience of her pregnant heroine, Irka. Dr. Ladygina will examine how the film’s distinctive treatment of domestic space and landscape, sound, and the female body makes visible forms of violence, agency, survival, and resistance that conventional images of combat often leave unseen. She will then consider how 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦, while firmly grounded in the specific experience of Russia’s war against Ukraine, reaches beyond Ukrainian national cinema to challenge established conventions and expand the boundaries of the war film itself. Finally, the lecture will turn to the film’s international circulation and the ways in which 𝘒𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘬𝘦 itself entered the informational and cultural struggle over how Russia’s war against Ukraine would be understood beyond Ukraine.
💛 Yuliya V. Ladygina is the Jacyk Distinguished Fellow at HURI and Associate Professor of Slavic and Global & International Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her current monograph project, Screens of Defiance: The Reel Story of Russia’s War against Ukraine, argues that contemporary Ukrainian war cinema rethinks the war-film genre by exposing the hybrid nature of modern warfare, where military violence is intertwined with information warfare, propaganda, and the politics of historical memory.
📍 ONLINE AND ON CAMPUS | CGIS-Knafel Building, 3rd Floor, Room K-354
🗓️ Wednesday, October 7 at 5:30 – 7:00 pm EDT
🔗 LEARN MORE: https://www.huri.harvard.edu/event/yuliya-ladygina-beyond-battlefield-maryna-er-gorbachs-klondike-and-remaking-war-cinema
💙 HURI | Petro Jacyk Seminar
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Where is it happening?
1737 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138-3016, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherUkrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
