Varta1. Lviv. Ukraine

On February 19th, 2014, amidst the most challenging days of Euromaidan, a “Night of Anger” unfolded in the city of Lviv. Driver-activists, united by the news channel Varta 1, temporarily assumed the responsibilities of local law enforcement officers. The fragile success of self-organization and the triumph of the grassroots movement quickly turns into a conflict thriller when a community member, the driver of a Porsche Cayenne, violates the rules.

According to the film’s creator, Yurii Hrytsyna, the film raises questions about the nature of the revolution: What is self-organization? How is the democratic order constructed? Who determines punishment? Where is the center and the periphery of the revolution? Where does it begin and where does it end?

Hrytsyna skillfully harnessed the straightforward semantics of film essays, which have emerged as one of the most potent storytelling tools of the 2010s. After collecting and analyzing over 70 hours of audio recordings, the director merged recorded radio conversations of the Euromaidan drivers with footage of the city’s dark and uncrowded non-tourist areas.

These places, captured on VHS tape, counteract the superficial advertising imagery commonly employed to promote Lviv as the “Ukrainian Piedmont.” Furthermore, they underscore the important issue for Hrytsyna: the issue of relations between the center and the periphery, which took on new political meaning against the backdrop of Maidan events.

By decoupling images and sound and blending captured radio conversations with the director’s impressionist footage of the city, the work masterfully captures the political realities of revolutionary Ukraine. These realities include revolution-induced short-lived anarchy that culminated in a tragedy of the commons.