# Beyond the Battlefield: Maryna Er Gorbach’s 𝑲𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒌𝒆 and the Remaking of War Cinema ![A still from the film "Klondike" of a woman in her kitchen as seen through a window](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2026-09/2026.10.07%20Ladygina-2-1920x1536-web-thumbnail.png?itok=3ykdvOzI) #### calendar\_today Date and Time **October 7, 2026** 05:00PM - 06:30PM EDT #### pin\_drop Location **IN-PERSON AND ONLINE** [1737 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA 02138 United States ]() CGIS-Knafel Building | Room K-354, 3rd Floor ### A lecture by **Yuliya V. Ladygina**, Jacyk Distinguished Fellow at HURI and Associate Professor of Slavic and Global and International Studies at the Pennsylvania State University Chaired by [Oleh Kotsyuba](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/people/oleh-kotsyuba), Director of Print and Digital Publications at HURI \[Image from Maryna Er Gorbach’s *Klondike* (2022)\] *This event is organized by HURI as part of the* [*Petro Jacyk Seminar*](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/jacyk-distinguished-fellowships) *series. This lecture is the first of a three-part film screening series.* [REGISTER TO ATTEND IN-PERSON chevron\_right](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-the-battlefield-the-remaking-of-war-cinema-tickets-2000510798651?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true) [REGISTER TO ATTEND ONLINE chevron\_right](https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dD-RhWGsSwS6eiQ9pybnOA) ## About the Lecture Since 2014, Russia’s war against Ukraine has unfolded not only across territory but also through images, information, historical narratives, and competing claims to political reality. Drawing on her ongoing book project on contemporary Ukrainian war cinema, Dr. Ladygina will argue that cinema no longer simply represents war but has itself become part of an expanded battlefield. She will show how Ukrainian films participate in struggles over testimony and evidence, historical memory and political legitimacy, cultural sovereignty and the authority to define reality. The lecture will trace how this changing relationship between warfare and representation is transforming the boundaries of war cinema, extending the genre beyond combat into media networks and archives, landscapes, domestic spaces, and individual bodies. Dr. Ladygina will develop this argument through a close reading of Maryna Er Gorbach’s *Klondike* (2022), set in the Donbas in the summer of 2014 against the backdrop of the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Turning away from the spectacular violence conventionally associated with war cinema, Er Gorbach centers the everyday, embodied experience of her pregnant heroine, Irka. Dr. Ladygina will examine how the film’s distinctive treatment of domestic space and landscape, sound, and the female body makes visible forms of violence, agency, survival, and resistance that conventional images of combat often leave unseen. She will then consider how *Klondike*, while firmly grounded in the specific experience of Russia’s war against Ukraine, reaches beyond Ukrainian national cinema to challenge established conventions and expand the boundaries of the war film itself. Finally, the lecture will turn to the film’s international circulation and the ways in which *Klondike* itself entered the informational and cultural struggle over how Russia’s war against Ukraine would be understood beyond Ukraine. ## About the Speaker ![Yuliya V. Ladygina](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/2026-09/2026.10.07%20Ladygina-1-200x200-web-speaker.png) [Yuliya V. Ladygina](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/people/fellow-yuliya-ladygina-2026) is Associate Professor of Slavic and Global and International Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on Eastern European literatures and cultures, with particular emphasis on cultural memory, transnational exchange, and the intersections of literature, film, and politics. She is the author of *Bridging East and West: Ol’ha Kobylians’ka, Ukraine’s Pioneering Modernist* (University of Toronto Press, 2019). Currently, she is completing her second book project, *Screens of Defiance: The Reel Story of Russia’s War against Ukraine*, which examines how Ukrainian filmmakers have documented, interpreted, and challenged Russia’s war against Ukraine since 2014, revealing how contemporary conflicts are fought not only on the battlefield but also through media, memory, and competing narratives of history and identity. Her scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in *East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies*, *East European Jewish Affairs*, *Harvard Ukrainian Studies*, *Journal of Cinema and Media Studies*, *Journal of War and Culture Studies*, *Slavic Review*, *KinoKultura*, *Studies in World Cinema*, and *Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture*. --- ###### Questions? Contact HURI Events Coordinator, [Kat Ambrus](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/people/kat-ambrus). ###### Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access should contact us at least two weeks in advance. ###### Watch videos of past HURI events on our [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/huriyt) and [subscribe](https://mailchi.mp/fas.harvard.edu/huri-subscribe) to our email list to receive announcements about upcoming events and other activities of the Institute. See also:- [ Jacyk Seminar/ Symposium ](/event-type/jacyk-seminar-symposium) - [ Contemporary Ukraine ](/fields-expertise/contemporary-ukraine) - [ Medieval and Early Modern History ](/fields-expertise/medieval-early-modern-history) - [ Russia-Ukraine War ](/fields-expertise/russia-ukraine-war) - [ Public Event ](/event-categories/public-event) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#) Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/node/1618946/event-feed.ics) Copy link link