Orange Revolution

USA 2007 / 106min.
Director Steve York / Producer Steve York

How is an election stolen? How are thousands of ballots “changed,” voters intimidated, election officials corrupted?

Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko is leading the exit polls so when Viktor Yanukovych is declared the winner, the people are stupefied. But even more amazingly, refusing to be cheated, over one million citizens flooded the streets of Kyiz for 17 days to defend their vote and the future of their country. Freezing in a makeshift tent city, taunted by secret police and Yanukovych supporters, they refuse to surrender their rights or their dignity.

This is the story of how the power of people, once mobilized, can achieve the impossible. With footage never seen even in Ukraine, penetrating conversations with those who made the revolution, and music performed live at pivotal moments, Orange Revolution captures the spirit and the determination of the most successful political protest of the decade – a non-violent victory which reverberates with meaning for citizens the world over.

Veteran filmmaker Steve York began tracking Ukraine’s presidential campaign in the summer of 2004, before opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned and in this potent exposé indicts the guilty, but more significantly demonstrates that democracy does not reside in a process or a candidate, but solely with the people. Although about Ukraine in particular, it is a universal theme — and so the film inspires anyone who watches it.

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