Lessons of Tolerance, directed by Arkadii Nepytaliuk, follows a Ukrainian family overcoming their homophobia, an education that war with Russia seems to be giving many in the country.
Inspired by Igor Bilyts’ 2017 play Gay Parade, the film follows a struggling, homophobic Ukrainian family who agree to host a gay activist in exchange for funding from the EU. They play games promoting equality and empathy, using humor against prejudice.
Like the family in his film, Nepytaliuk found his prejudices started to give way to acceptance by “studying, talking and working” with LGBTQ+ people as he got older. “I discovered that these people are just like me … and in [that] process of discovery my fear of LGBT people decreased and disappeared.”
Despite Ukraine being the first post-Soviet country to decriminalise homosexuality in 1991, legal progress and social acceptance has lagged. Although there are laws against discrimination in the workplace, there is no recognition of any form of same-sex union, nor are there any laws recognising anti-LGBTQ hate crimes or banning conversion practices.
For years, LGBTQ people in Ukraine have fought to be recognised as equal members of society, but now, as Russian invasion imperils Ukraine’s very existence, LGBTQ Ukrainians are working and fighting to save a country that has not yet accepted them as full citizens.
According to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in 2023, the number of people who have a "negative view" of the LGBTQ community has decreased from 60.4% to 38.2%, over the past six years.
Watch the trailer below:
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