Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine

Just days after the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine that led to the toppling of the country’s corrupt president, the country was invaded by Russia. Ukrainians of all backgrounds rallied to the country’s defense, creating a new sense of Ukrainian nationhood in the process. BREAKING POINT depicts these turbulent events, at times heroic, at times tragic, through the eyes of people who lived them – a doctor, a soldier, a children’s theater director, a rabbi, and an investigative reporter. The film follows the characters as they struggle to defeat the Russians and remake their own government. The outcome affects more than the future of Ukraine. As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum says, “Ukraine has become a piece of a bigger struggle about the future of democracy. Can democracy even survive into the 21st century?” —Santa Barbara International Film Festival