Producer of the Babylon’13 Group Marko Suprun, when he was receiving the award, dedicated it to the Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov, who was illegally arrested and condemned to 20 years of imprisonment in Russia. “I would like to receive this award on behalf of Oleh Sentsov who embodies the struggle for freedom. Like Nadia Savchenko, who was also illegally arrested following false accusations,” he mentioned at the awarding ceremony at the London-based Mall Galleries. Suprun emphasized that the festival plays an important role for the shaping of the civil society across the world: “All the people who come to this festival are in a unique way connected with the civil society, which is the greatest moving force against the suppression of freedom.” He called upon artists, filmmakers, journalists, and writers to continue to defend freedom in entire world, and especially in Ukraine, which is resisting Russian aggression. “If we don’t stop the attack on freedom in Ukraine, it will spread in the rest of Europe. If we defend Ukraine, we will defend freedom,” Suprun said.
It will be reminded that the 7th annual artistic festival “Passion For Freedom” has taken place at London-based Mall Galleries. The forum is dedicated to the protection of human rights and freedom of expression through art. The festival is a venue for the artists who give answers to the questions of freedom, what it means, how easy it is to lose it and how hard to return.
This year Ukraine is represented at the festival “Passion For Freedom” for the first time by four works, Dmytro Iv’s sculpture, pictures by Olha Braun and Natalia Formosa, and the documentary by the Babylon’13.
Stronger than Arms is the first documentary feature by Babylon’13, which tells about the events, and people who since the time of Euromaidan and during the war in the east have been building new Ukraine. The film tells about the evolution of Ukrainian reality and the people’s struggle for freedom.
