This Sunday is the premier of A Community in Exile, a collaborative documentary made by a Ukrainian community historian with support from Dr Nick Baron in the Department of History. 

The film - which is based on oral history interviews, on the prehistory of the Nottingham Ukrainian community - was part-funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) with the University of Nottingham contributing technical consultancy and support. The film will premier this coming Sunday at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Nottingham. The Sheriff of Nottingham will be attending, alongside the First Secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy, representatives of the Ukrainian Association in Great Britain, and the local Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome, amongst others. The film will then go on tour to Ukrainian cultural centres across the UK. 

About the film

A Community in Exile: Testimonies of war, displacement and resettlement

This documentary film is based on nine oral history interviews recorded in 1999-2000 by Leo Jurkiw, a public historian based in Nottingham. The interviewees  were elderly members of the local Ukrainian community. Before emigrating to the UK, each had suffered momentous displacements and loss, uprooted from their homes, often separated from their families, afflicted by war, civil conflict and repression. Their ordeals and wanderings are representative of those of a generation caught between Hitler and Stalin. 

All the interviewees featured here settled after 1945 in the UK, and eventually in Nottingham. There they struck new roots. Their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are now members of the city's thriving Ukrainian community.

Interviews and Production: Leo Jurkiw, Nottingham
Camera and Sound: Ewhen Kurlak
Historical Consultancy: Dr Nick Baron, University of Nottingham
Technical Consultancy: Simon Barnett, Black Hawk Productions

About Nick Baron

Nick is an Associate Professor in the Department of History. His research focuses on 20th-century Russian/Soviet and East European political, cultural and social history and historical geography. He has supported the making of this film since 2014 as part of ongoing research projects.