The Ukrainian Film Festival 2026 runs from October 15 to November 29. A Japanese high school student explains what's important and why you should see it.
The Underground Garden (Screenshot)
Japan Forward's "Ignite" column is a series where students in Japan share their voices in English. Liza Kirov, a high school student in Tokyo, volunteered at the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan for the 2026 film festival. Here, she shares her thoughts about the event and the film whose subtitles she helped to translate. Her journey is one of discovery of the significance of cross-cultural communication in a world that is not always gentle to its children. Let's listen.
Part of the Japan Forward IGNITE series:
Film Across Borders: Ukrainian Cinema Brought to Japan
By Liza Kirov
When a country is repeatedly defined by headlines of war and humanitarian crisis, its identity risks becoming inseparable from the conflict it endures. In Ukraine's case, international coverage understandably focuses on the devastating consequences of Russia's ongoing invasion. Yet this focus can overshadow the cultural richness, creativity, and humanity that continue to shape the nation. Beyond the destruction is a society whose stories extend far beyond its suffering, where traditions endure, and artistic expression remains a means of preserving cultural identity and sustaining hope.
I recently volunteered as a Japanese subtitle translator for The Underground Garden, a film directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Yulian Ulybin that follows a children's art studio operating inside a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine. After watching the film repeatedly while working on its subtitles, I was struck by Ulybin's ability to capture the children's candid responses to life in a city under attack.
Through quiet yet powerful moments, the film reveals how children continue to create, dream, and find beauty amid circumstances no child should have to experience. Rather than presenting war solely through its destruction, The Underground Garden offers a more intimate perspective, allowing audiences to encounter the conflict through the eyes of those growing up within it.
Opening the Door Through Translation
My role was to make this story accessible to Japanese-speaking audiences. Although translation may appear to be a technical process, I came to see it as something more personal: an opportunity to carry an experience across linguistic and cultural boundaries.
Translating subtitles requires more than finding equivalent words. Meaning, tone, and emotion must be conveyed within the limited space of a few lines on screen. An expression that feels natural in Ukrainian may carry different connotations in Japanese, requiring careful consideration of not only what is being said but also how its meaning will be received by another audience.
One line that stayed with me was "戦争を生き抜いた子供たちへ" (Senso wo ikinuita kodomo-tachi e, meaning "To the children who survived the war"). Its Japanese wording differed from the original Ukrainian expression, yet both carried a profound emotional weight. This moment reminded me that translation is not always about reproducing words exactly. It is about preserving the meaning and emotion behind them.
Building New Connections
The challenge lies in finding language that resonates with a new audience without losing the essence of the original.
This responsibility made me reflect on the distance language can create, as well as the connections it can build. A film may cross a border, but its meaning does not automatically travel with it. Translation helps bridge that gap, allowing audiences to encounter perspectives that might otherwise remain unfamiliar.
My connection to Ukraine makes this work particularly meaningful. I spent much of my childhood there before moving to Japan, and my family remains closely connected to the country. Living between two cultures has shaped my understanding of how the stories we encounter influence our perceptions of places and people. I want Japanese audiences to see Ukraine not only through the lens of war but also through its artists, memories, cultural traditions, and everyday experiences.
Film offers a way to approach these experiences through individual stories rather than statistics alone. It invites viewers to engage with perspectives beyond their own, even when they come from different linguistic or cultural backgrounds. While cinema cannot replace journalism or explain every dimension of a conflict, it can reveal aspects of human experience that headlines may leave unexplored.
Bringing Ukrainian Stories to a New Audience
The Ukrainian Film Festival in Japan creates space for this exchange, bringing Ukrainian cinema to Japanese audiences and connecting filmmakers, cultural organizers, and viewers. My contribution as a student translator was only one part of this wider effort, but it showed me that cultural exchange does not always begin with a grand gesture. Sometimes, it begins with a carefully chosen word, a subtitle that preserves an emotion, or a film that allows someone to see a country differently.
Ultimately, my experience translating The Underground Garden showed me that bringing a story across borders means more than making it understandable. It means creating an opportunity for people to encounter experiences beyond their own and to recognize the humanity that connects them. Through film and translation, Ukrainian stories can reach audiences thousands of miles away, reminding us that even when people do not share a language, they can still find meaning in one another's stories.
About the Ukrainian Film Festival
Sponsored by the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan, UA House Japan, Stand with Ukraine Japan, and others, the Ukrainian Film Festival in Japan 2026 runs from October 15 to November 29. The festival includes showings of 12 films in seven cities across the country, including Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Sendai, and Urayasu.
Additional information about the films, tickets, and screening hours near you is available on the Ukraine House Japan website.
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Author: Liza Kirov
Tokyo high school student and Ukrainian Embassy volunteer for the film festival