The multicultural Ostpol Berlin festival is taking place in Berlin from 5 to 12 July, aiming to highlight the influence of people from Central and Eastern Europe in shaping the landscape of Germany’s modern capital.
The festival, which features bilingual events, will include panel discussions, public interviews, concerts and performances. Several events will involve participants from Ukraine or authors whose work explores themes related to Ukraine.
In particular, a conversation is scheduled for 9 July with Andorran photographer Maria Oliva, who will present her photo project Between the Sirens about life in Odesa during the war. In the summer of 2025, she volunteered with the Red Cross in Odesa. The reality of life in a city located away from the front line but still affected by the war left a profound impression on her, prompting her to document what she witnessed.
On the same day, there will be a conversation with Swiss author Ilma Rakusa centred on her book Where Is the Light? (Wo bleibt das Licht). In this prose work, written in diary form between 2022 and 2024, Rakusa interweaves the political and the personal, combining observations on contemporary issues with reflections on literature, nature and everyday life. She views the world’s conflict zones with concern, particularly Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The day will conclude with a meeting with writer Katja Petrowskaja, who was born in Kyiv and has lived in Berlin since 1999. In her columns, published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung between February 2022 and autumn 2024, Petrowskaja documented the war. The discussion will focus on how war shapes the perceptions of both those experiencing it directly and those observing it from afar.
On Friday, 11 July, the festival will feature a performance by poet Nadiya Telenchuk and musician Oles Volynchyk. They will combine Ukrainian, English and German texts with live music, singing and visual imagery. The programme will explore the boundaries between personal memory and collective experience, addressing themes of love and loss, inner turmoil, war, migration, and the ways in which hope and human connection can help sustain a fractured world.
The festival programme also includes an event featuring Russian writer Viktor Erofeev, who currently lives in Berlin. The discussion will focus on his book The New Barbarism.