Dana Kavelina: "The Lemberg Machine (2023)" - Film screening and Discussion

This animation film focuses on the Lviv Pogroms of June and July 1941 and the subsequent unfolding of the Holocaust in the city - incited by the Nazi occupation. Kavelina’s film tackles it through animation, which she understands not only as a technique but as a figure for resurrection. A fictional setting, the laboratory of history, frames multiple voices speaking the many languages of the city. Based on eyewitness accounts of survivors, they tell a history rewritten from the perspective of the resurrected victims.

More than 600 days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, Russian attack and Ukrinian defense continue unabated. The capital Kyiv and numerous other cities of Ukraine, from Kharkiv to L'viv, are regularly bombed, and at the moment (October 2023) there is even talk of one of the most massive offensives in recent months in the Donetsk region. The human losses are enormous on both sides, but peace is far from in sight. Nevertheless, life in Ukraine not only goes on in spite of all this, maintaining a normalcy has even become one of the most important and strongest tactics of survival in this permanently life-threatening situation. Through the tireless repair and reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure, as well as through numerous initiatives in the spheres of industry, business, and art and culture, not only forces are being deployed, but also energies are being released that are so important for Ukraine's survival and victory. It is hard to believe, but new visions of the future are constantly emerging in Ukraine, and not only visions, but very real projects - civic, technical-industrial, entrepreneurial or artistic-cultural - , which design a new Ukraine and even now, in the midst of war, are working on its symbolic and concrete construction. 
In the interdisciplinary series "Rethinking and Reimagining Ukraine in Times of War - and After", which is enriched by artistic contributions and in which several faculties of Humboldt University are participating, we ask how the situation of threat, attack by Russia and the ongoing war shapes and changes Ukrainian society and culture, and what this means for the future. Scholars, artists and poets from Ukraine will discuss with colleagues from Humboldt University current developments, or developments of the past that are of particular relevance for the present, and future perspectives. Experts from the fields of politics, religion, law, history and cultural studies will reflect on war-related developments in society, religion, law, languages and culture or multiculturalism, as well as in academia and its institutions. And contributions from the field of visual arts, literature and music will show how significant the role of art is as a medium of mourning and empathy, as a remedy of deep wounding and traumatization, but also as an instrument of cultural self-reflection and self-discovery and the development of visions beyond the limits of current reality.