Please join the Ukrainian Film Club for a screening of the feature environmental documentary Return Sasyk to the Sea (2022), followed by a discussion with director Andrea Odezynska. Moderated by Yuri Shevchuk.

The film spotlights the destructive legacy Ukraine inherited as a former member of the Soviet Union. The Soviets were obsessed with beating America in every way possible. Boosting agriculture was one “way” and Ukraine was their pawn in this deadly game. The film tells the story of bizarre Soviet irrigation projects in Southern Ukraine that created a slow eco-disaster, which continues today. Construction of the irrigation project began in 1972; rerouting Ukraine’s major rivers and converting all salt-water estuaries into freshwater reservoirs. Sasyk Estuary was the first in line to be converted. In addition to destroying a pristine eco-system, residents in the Sasyk Estuary region lost fresh drinking water, watched cancer rates rise and lost local economies such as fishing. Today, Sasyk Estuary, by the Black Sea, is ground zero for a battle between eco activists vs. poachers and corrupt officials.

Much of the music that gives Return Sasyk to the Sea its hauntingly-beautiful sound is performed by Dakha Brakha, a Ukrainian ethnic (chaos) quartet from Kyiv.

In light of the latest brutal invasion of Ukraine, the story of Sasyk Estuary is a metaphor for the history of Ukraine itself. ~ Andrea Odezynska.