Film to commemorate the Odessa tragedy: 2 May 2014

On the eve of the third anniversary of the Odessa tragedy tens of thousands of people in Europe saw a film on May 2 events. Today, on May 2, at 19:30 it will be shown again on the TV channel “UA: First”.

On YouTube the film “Odessa tragedy: bloody trail of the Russian spring” gathered 39 thousand viewers who left dozens of comments in Russian, Ukrainian and other six European languages. In three months of the advertising campaign on Facebook film page the audience outreach in six European countries amounted to 221 thousand viewers. In Ukraine the film premiere took place five months ago on “UA: First” TV channel.

The film tells about the failed attempt to establish “Odessa People’s Republic” in “the southern capital of Ukraine” back in spring 2014, similar to the experiences of the “people’s republics” in Donbas. The result of the relevant plan had to be the separation of the south of Ukraine together with the Eastern regions of Ukraine from the rest of the country.

The film characters, who are journalists and public figures, are telling why after the failure of the special operations the mass riots occurred on May 2, which led to the deaths of dozens of people.

Why they still not managed to avoid the bloodshed? What was the trigger of the tragedy? What are the causes of the fire in the House of Trade Union and the death of 48 people? What was the reason of inactivity of the police and fire service? The film answers these questions, based on the facts set out in chronological order. The dramatic events are also depicted by their participants representing both sides of the conflict.

The authors of the film avoid political assessments. They convey to the audience one of the worst tragedies in the modern history of Ukraine, without imposing their opinions, without manipulations and propaganda.

“The Odessa tragedy” was created based on the materials of investigations by the “2 May Group”, a public commission organized in Odessa by journalists and independent experts in the first days after the May events.

The analysis of the comments on Facebook and YouTube shows that the European audience, unfortunately, had little knowledge of all aspects of the Odessa tragedy. When describing the May 2 events, people of the European countries most often use the metanarrative of the Russian propaganda that the “Ukrainian Nazis burned dissidents on the Trade Union House”. However, it is noticeable that the number of comments of people who sincerely want to understand what happened in Odessa is increasing. “Thank you for your excellent work! Especially for the Greek translation, it is very important to convey to the Greeks the truth about the events in Ukraine. Unfortunately many of them do not know the details, because local channels dose information and sometimes fake”, writes Lubov Khalilova, YouTube user.

“Until now a great deal of myths and unsubstantiated facts on May 2 Odessa events were circulating in the cyberspace. The Russian propaganda is trying to use/create such myths to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the international community. It is therefore very important that the materials of independent journalist investigation become available to viewers around the world”, says Eugene Popov, head of the South Ukrainian representative office of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Film author: Elizaveta Tatarinova. Cameramen: Victor Levchuk, Olexiy Didik.

Production: TTB Studio.

The film was created under financial support of the Open Society Foundations and the Interational Renaissance Foundation.

The film is translated into six European languages: English, Greek, Italian, Spanish, German, French. A special channel YouTube 2nd of May Group Media was created to show the film to the European audience.

The film in English can be viewed here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qDtDZlg3nY&t=23s

in German

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrTeerT8Xb8&t=995s

in Italian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAauOgaSMig&t=338s

in French

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXAfARiTjWw&t=120s

in Greek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8rfO6p4HAc&t=44s

in Spanish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXAnJM7bb-U