The Israeli film that was going to be shot in Ukraine will return to Kyiv: what is behind the ‘Focus on Israel’ at the 17th Odesa International Film Festival

At the 17th Odesa International Film Festival in Kyiv, 3 new Israeli films will be shown. However, one of them has an almost vanished Ukrainian story from the current announcement: before the full-scale Russian invasion, the film “Mama” was created as a joint project of Ukraine and Israel and was supposed to be filmed in Ukraine.

The 17th Odesa International Film Festival, which will take place from August 27 to September 4, 2026, in Kyiv, announced a separate program “Focus on Israel”. It includes three feature films by Israeli directors — “Bella”, “Mama”, and “My One and Only”.

It is particularly important that “Focus on Israel” is held with the participation of the Embassy of the State of Israel in Ukraine. The logo and name of the embassy are placed on the official poster of the OIFF program next to the Israel branding. However, in the published text announcement, the festival does not specify the exact status of the embassy — organizer, partner, or supporter of the special program.

At first glance, this is a typical national selection of contemporary cinema. The organizers describe it through universal themes: family, love, returning home, attempts to understand a person who has become a stranger.

But NANews — News of Israel delved deeper into the history of the films included in the program beyond the official announcement. And they discovered a detail that completely changes the perception of at least one film.

Today, “Mama” is officially considered a joint film of Israel, Poland, and Italy.

A few years ago, Poland was not part of this story at all.

There was Ukraine.

What is the Odesa Film Festival and why is it being held in Kyiv in 2026

The Odesa International Film Festival is one of the main annual film festivals in Ukraine. It was established in 2010 in Odesa: the first OIFF took place from July 16–24 and combined competitive and non-competitive screenings of Ukrainian and foreign films. Over time, the festival became a platform not only for premieres but also for meetings of directors, actors, producers, international guests, and the professional film industry. One of its main symbols became the award “Golden Duke”.

The full-scale Russian war has also changed the geography of the festival. In recent years, the OIFF has not been held in Odesa. In 2024 and 2025, the festival was held in Kyiv, and the 17th OIFF in 2026 will be the third consecutive Kyiv edition. However, the organizers maintain the historical name of the festival and its connection to Odesa.

In 2026, the festival will take place from August 27 to September 4 in Kyiv. The main cinemas of the OIFF are named “Zhovten” and “Oscar”. “Zhovten” is located at 26 Konstiantynivska Street, and “Oscar” is in the Gulliver Shopping Center at 1-A Sportyvna Square.

The program is not limited to regular film screenings. It includes National and International Competitions, premieres, special thematic selections, retrospectives, master classes, and the professional section Film Industry Office, where filmmakers meet, present projects, and pitch.

The separate special program of the 17th festival will be “Focus on Israel”.

The founder and official organizer of the OIFF is the Ukrainian LLC “Ukrainian Film Festival”. The general director of the festival is Anna Machukh. In 2026, the festival is held with the support of the State Agency of Ukraine for Cinema and the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

For regular viewers, a festival pass costing 1650 hryvnias is already on sale. It allows attending all screenings and master classes of the festival — with prior seat reservation or if seats are available. The pass can be purchased directly on the official OIFF website.

Buy a festival pass on the OIFF website

As of August 8, 2026, separate ticket sales for specific screenings of the three films in the “Focus on Israel” program have not yet been announced: the festival website currently offers only pass sales. The schedule of individual screenings — with date, time, and specific hall — has also not been published by the organizers yet.

It is at this festival that the Ukrainian audience will see three new Israeli films. Moreover, one of them hides a story that began long before the current “Focus on Israel” — and it began precisely between Israel and Ukraine.

“Mama” began as a Ukrainian-Israeli film “DIM”

In the current OIFF program, the film by Or Sinai is presented as follows: Mila worked away from her family for 15 years and then returns from the wealthy world of her employers to her native Polish village. There she discovers that her husband and daughter have practically learned to live without her during her absence.

However, the project archive shows a different initial geography.

On December 2, 2021, the State Agency of Ukraine for Cinema announced the feature project “DIM/HOME” as a joint production of Ukraine and Israel. The project was created with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency and received two awards at the TorinoFilmLab, including the Production Award of 40,000 euros and an award for subtitle creation.

TorinoFilmLab in its materials of that period described the plot even more specifically: the heroine, after 15 years of providing for her family by working in Israel, returns to Ukraine. The author and director of the project was already Or Sinai, and the producer was Adi Bar-Yosef.

Thus, the main structure of the future “Mama” already existed:

Israel — the place where the woman earns money for her family for years.

Ukraine — her home, where she tries to return.

And the emotional conflict is built on the cost of those fifteen lost family years.

This is a fundamental detail. The Ukrainian line was not added to a finished Israeli film for the festival audience. Ukraine was inside the original concept of the film and within its production structure.

The Russian invasion changed not only the filming location

Here begins the part of the story that is almost invisible in the brief announcement of the current “Focus on Israel”.

After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it became impossible to realize the film in its original form.

Or Sinai later directly stated in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival that the film was initially planned to be shot in Ukraine. The team already had funding and a Ukrainian co-producer, but after the war began, the co-producer joined the army.

The creators had to look for another country and another partner. That country became Poland.

As a result, not only the production location changed.

The heroine’s biography itself changed.

The Ukrainian village turned into a Polish one. The project, which in 2021 was officially called a joint production of Ukraine and Israel, in its finished version became a co-production of Israel, Poland, and Italy.

It is this final version — Mama, 2025 — that viewers in Kyiv will now see.

It turns out to be almost a cinematic circle.

The film was born as a story of a woman between Israel and Ukraine.

It was prepared for production with the participation of Ukraine.

The Russian full-scale war displaced Ukraine from the film’s setting and production geography.

The film was rewritten and shot as a story between Israel and Poland.

And now it returns to Ukraine — as a finished work, in the Israeli program of the Odesa International Film Festival.

“Mama” reached Cannes

The change in the project did not stop the film.

In 2025, “Mama” was included in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings category. For Or Sinai, this is her first feature film.

The Cannes Festival indicates the film’s duration — 91 minutes, and the countries of production — Israel, Poland, and Italy. The main role of Mila was played by Israeli actress Evgenia Dodina.

For Sinai, Cannes was not new territory. Back in 2016, her short film “Anna” won the first prize at Cinéfondation. In “Mama,” the director again works with Dodina and continues to explore women’s lives outside the convenient scheme of “the right mother” or “the right wife.”

But for the Ukrainian viewer, there is now another layer that was not present for the Cannes audience.

They know why Poland appeared in this story.

“Bella”: Israel and Palestinian territories without a political lecture

The second film of the program — “Bella” (Bella), 2025, a joint production of Israel and Belgium, directors Zohar Shachar and Jamal Khalaileh.

The plot begins almost like an absurd comedy.

Yaki inherits a pigeon, which unexpectedly turns out to be extremely valuable. Together with his childhood friend Bilal and their wives, the characters set off to Jerusalem for a pigeon beauty contest.

The road passes through Israel and the Palestinian territories. Along the way, there are checkpoints, a ruined wedding, a stolen car, and the need to deal with accumulated grievances between people. The OIFF separately emphasizes that the film was jointly created by Israeli and Palestinian directors.

This is an important distinction of “Bella” from many films that try to explain the region directly through big politics.

Here, borders and prejudices exist, they cannot be removed from the frame, but at the center remain four people and a rather strange reason for their journey — a pigeon.

That is why the film is interesting to the Israeli audience not only as a comedy. Through a domestic story, it shows a space where political reality constantly interferes with ordinary human life.

“My One and Only”: when the husband looks like the same person, but the wife is sure he has been replaced

The most intimate story of the program at first glance — “My One and Only” by David Tauber, 2025.

A few weeks after the birth of their first child, a young woman, who recently became religious, comes to the rabbanit with a claim that sounds almost like the beginning of a mystical thriller: her husband has been replaced.

Outwardly, he is the same person. The same voice, the same face.

But she is sure that this is no longer the man she married.

The Jerusalem Film Festival, where the film was presented in the Israeli cinema program, defines it as a multi-character mystery drama about how people change within relationships, how infatuation differs from the ability to maintain love, and what happens when the closest person begins to be perceived as a stranger.

The film was shot in Israel, its duration is 104 minutes, the language is Hebrew. The director and screenwriter is David Tauber.

Thus, the three films of the program turn out to be very different.

One talks about home, migration, and fifteen lost years.

The second — about the journey of Israelis and Palestinians through the real space of borders and mutual stereotypes.

The third — about family, religious change, and the fear of one day not recognizing the person next to you.

Why this program is important right now

For NANews — News of Israel, another process is interesting here.

The cultural connection between Israel and Ukraine today exists simultaneously in two directions.

Now the movement is happening in the opposite direction: contemporary Israeli cinema is coming to the Ukrainian audience.

But the story of “Mama” shows how conditional the division into “Ukrainian” and “Israeli” cultural narratives sometimes becomes.

If not for the Russian invasion, we would probably have a finished Ukrainian-Israeli film about a woman who earns in Israel and returns home to Ukraine.

In reality, the war intervened even here — in the script, the nationality of the heroine, the filming geography, the funding, and the composition of the co-production.

This is already an editorial conclusion by NANews, based on comparing 2021 documents with the final data of the film from 2025–2026: the Russian invasion not only prevented the filming of a specific film in Ukraine. It changed the cultural product so much that Ukraine disappeared from its final list of production countries and from the geography of the story.

However, the story itself still reached Ukraine.

Five years after the announcement of the “DIM/HOME” project, viewers in Kyiv will be able to see what it eventually turned into.

What is confirmed and what is not yet

As of the publication date, the following is confirmed:

The 17th Odesa International Film Festival will be held in Kyiv from August 27 to September 4, 2026.

The “Focus on Israel” program includes three films: “Bella”, “Mama”, and “My One and Only”.

“Mama” by Or Sinai is officially a production of Israel, Poland, and Italy and was presented at Cannes in 2025.

Its early version “DIM/HOME” was officially created as a Ukrainian-Israeli project with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency.

The original heroine was supposed to return to Ukraine after fifteen years of working in Israel.

Or Sinai directly linked the transfer of production from Ukraine to Poland with the start of the full-scale war.

Also, in the published announcement, there is no separate schedule for the screenings of the three films by day and time yet.

These details may appear closer to the festival’s opening.

Sources and origin of information

The basis of the news is the official announcement of the 17th Odesa International Film Festival about the “Focus on Israel” program and the publication by Detector Media on August 8, 2026.

The history of the film “Mama” was reconstructed by NANews from the archival announcement of the State Agency of Ukraine for Cinema on December 2, 2021, materials from TorinoFilmLab, the official database of the Cannes Film Festival, and interviews with director Or Sinai.

Data on the film “My One and Only” was verified with the official program of the Jerusalem Film Festival.

Thus, a story emerges that is not fully contained in one press release: “Focus on Israel” will bring not just three Israeli films to Kyiv. Along with them, a film project will return that was once supposed to connect Israel and Ukraine directly on screen — until the Russian war rewrote its geography.