Ambassador of Ukraine to Kenya and Tanzania (with residence in Nairobi, Kenya) Andrii Pravednyk took part in the screening of the film "Homeward" by Ukrainian director Nariman Aliev, organized by Alliance française with the assistance of the European Commission as a part of the Zanzibar International Film Festival.

"Crimean Tatars were subjected to repression by Russia during the Tsarist period, and then Stalin's deportation, during which practically the entire indigenous Crimean Tatar population of the Ukrainian peninsula was sent into exile overnight. The occupiers continue the brutal policy of persecution of the indigenous population of Crimea even now, after the enemy's invasion of Crimea in 2014," said the Ambassador of Ukraine.

Nariman Aliev's film is a psychological drama that explores the theme of family relationships, traditions and life of Crimean Tatars, separated from their homeland by decades of deportations and repressions by the Russian occupation contingent in Crimea.

The Ukrainian Oscar committee chose "Homeward" (Crimian Tatar: "Evge") as the national contender from Ukraine for the "Oscar" award. In 2019, the film won the main prize "Golden Duke" at the Odesa Film Festival, the Grand Prix of the Bucharest Film Festival, as well as the prize for the best foreign film at the International Bosphorus Film Festival.

Director N. Aliyev was born in Crimea already after Ukraine gained independence, when his family was finally able to return home after the exile orchestrated by Stalin in 1944.

"Now I fully understand my father, who returned to Crimea in his forties, I understand my mother -- she was almost thirty at the time of repatriation; they both had two higher education degrees, the father headed a computing center. They had an arranged life in Uzbekistan -- and they left it all to start anew, to start a life in which instead of intellectual work, there was daily routine. I've seen it all, and I'm not afraid to lose and start from scratch." -- N. Aliyev said in one of his interviews.

Representatives of the diplomatic corps of partner countries from the EU, Germany and France, as well as members of the cultural community from Tanzania and Uganda, who were present at the screening, noted that the Crimean Tatar topic rarely gains publicity in East African countries and thanked the organizers and the Embassy of Ukraine in Kenya for drawing attention to this topic.

"What struck me the most about this film was that I felt that we were breathing the same air. People in Ukraine, and in Tanzania or Uganda, face similar problems, live a similar life: they cultivate their land, draw water from wells in the same way. Ukraine is not some faraway, remote place. These are the same people, with the same desires and lust for life. This movie brought back many memories of my own childhood." -- said one of the guests of the show, Julius Ssekajja, Ugandan who lives in Tanzania and works in Arusha in the field of culture and tourism.

As part of the meeting with the organizers of the festival, the Embassy of Ukraine reached a preliminary agreement to screen the documentary "20 Days in Mariupol" at several venues in Tanzania as part of the Zanzibar International Film Festival, which will contribute to the deepening of the Tanzanian and international audience's perception of the realities of Russian aggression against Ukraine.