Film screening "Resilient Expression: Ukrainian Artists in Estonia" | smART fest 2026

For many Ukrainian artists in Estonia, creativity has become a way to preserve their identity and connection with home.

This documentary shows how culture becomes a form of resilience, self-expression and quiet resistance in times of war and forced displacement.

Directed by Parker Watt, filmmaker and former Fulbright fellow at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies.

Ukrainian culture in Estonia: art as support, memory and a path to healing.

After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Estonia became one of the key countries to offer refuge to Ukrainians. Today around 60,000 Ukrainians live in the country – about 4.4% of the population – and most of them arrived after 2022.

They face a difficult task: to preserve their identity while building a new life abroad.

Ukrainian artists play a special role in this process. Their work draws on tradition, processes present-day experience and shapes the vision of Ukrainian culture of the future – even while their homeland is under attack.

Through art, they create space for healing and for dialogue with Estonian society.

Over the past year, director Parker Watt has filmed a series of short films telling the personal stories of Ukrainian artists and creative groups living and working in Estonia.

Each video is a look at art as a way to survive trauma, preserve culture and find one's place in a new environment.

Languages: Ukrainian, English, Russian, Estonian

Subtitles: English and Ukrainian

Kultuurikatel, Tallinn
24.05.2026

Tickets: fienta.com

The project is implemented by drUzi.ee Ukraina meedia Druzi and the Association of Ukrainian Organisations in Estonia with the support of the City of Tallinn, the Integration Foundation and the Ministry of Culture