On 21 March 2023, at 19:00, members of the OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival team held a screening dedicated to Ukraine at the European Parliament.
Charge d'Affaires of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Natalia Anoshyna, Member of the European Parliament from Bulgaria Radan Kanev, and representative of the democratic party Da, Bulgaria Silvia Atipova spoke at the event.
Then the floor was taken by the director of OKO and Ukrainian filmmaker of Bulgarian descent, Tetiana Stanieva, who spoke firsthand about the horrors of war that every citizen of Ukraine faces every day. Her words were illustrated by the screened film Own by Myroslav Lutsyk, which featured the stories of residents of Irpin, Bucha, and Borodyanka who survived the Russian occupation.
Besides, there was an exhibition of photos from the Kyiv region, taken in January 2023 to mark the anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion, by ethnographer and our communications director Oleksandr Baron.
Tetiana has thanked the Europeans for the incredible support of Ukrainians abroad and called on them to continue their assistance. As of now, Ukraine is defending democratic values at the cost of its people's lives. It must not be this way.
In addition, as a representative of the Bulgarian diaspora, Tetiana called on Bulgarian citizens, where Russian propaganda has also taken strong roots, to open their eyes and expel Russian agents from the government in the upcoming parliamentary elections. This will be the key to a better life in the country.
The screening was organized with the support of the local organization Da, Bulgaria in Brussels, personally Silvia Atipova and Ivailo Toshev, and MEP Radan Kanev.