The Reel Story of the Donbas: Sergei Loznitsa’s Cinematic Study of the War-Torn Region

In her talk, Dr. Ladygina will share her ongoing research on Sergei Loznitsa’s internationally acclaimed film Donbass (2018), which offers not only a powerful anti-war text and an astute record of conspicuous social transformations in contemporary Ukraine but also an original perspective on the hybrid nature of modern war and its mediatization.

Presenter: Yuliya V. Ladygina

Yuliya V. Ladygina is Helena Rubinstein University Endowed Fellow in the Humanities and assistant professor of Slavic and global and international studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research in Eastern European literatures and cultures focuses on questions of cultural memory and cultural exchange. She is the author of Bridging East and West: Ol’ha Kobylians’ka, Ukraine’s Pioneering Modernist (University of Toronto Press, 2019. Her current book project, The Reel Story of Russia’s War against Ukraine, examines the post-2014 cycle of Ukrainian war films.