UKRAINIAN SHERIFFS. HOLDING ON TO HOME

UKRAINIAN SHERIFFS. HOLDING ON TO HOME — an exhibition about the people of the Kherson region and a world transformed by war

Authors: Roman Bondarchuk and Darya Averchenko
11 September–2 October 2026

The exhibition UKRAINIAN SHERIFFS. HOLDING ON TO HOME takes the viewer on a strange kind of journey. Strange because, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the time separating the footage shot by filmmaker Roman Bondarchuk from the present appears to have stretched, while the distance seems to have shrunk. By the calendar, the events unfolding on the exhibition screens took place 12–13 years ago; geographically, they are set in Stara Zburivka, some 1,300 kilometers southeast of Jūrmala.

Stara Zburivka is a medium-sized village on the left bank of the Dnipro, not far from where the river falls into the Black Sea. On one side lies the river delta, with its maze of channels; on the other, a pine forest that pulls the village closer to the coastal settlements of Kurzeme than to the steppe and its endless fields of grain and sunflowers. At the heart of Stara Zburivka sit the village council, a community centre, a school, a post office, three grocery shops and two bars. The village is mostly one- and two-storey houses with white silicate-brick walls and slate roofs. But its fences speak more vividly than its architecture – wooden, iron, concrete, wire and slate; painted and unpainted, straight and crooked, high and low, they hold the streets in a colourful, picturesque frame.

No description of the village would be complete, though, without mentioning what it lacks. There is no doctor, no fire service (although there is a fire lookout tower, which plays a starring role in this story), and no police. Like villagers anywhere, the people of Stara Zburivka do more than work and rest: they also drink, fight, steal, make scenes and quarrel with their neighbours. The local police inspector sits in the district centre and responds to calls only when something genuinely criminal has happened or when the caller is prepared to pay for his fuel. Ukraine has thousands of such villages, but Stara Zburivka stands out for its unusual response to the absence of local law enforcement – a solution born of the quintessentially Ukrainian instinct for self-organisation. This is the story told here, and its protagonists are village head Viktor Maruniak and the two men he appointed to keep order, the ‘village sheriffs’ Viktor and Volodymyr. The screens show episodes from the sheriffs’ daily rounds and village life itself, shortly before and after the occupation of Crimea.

Russian occupation forces first entered Stara Zburivka on 17 March 2022. A few days later, the Russians captured the village head, held him prisoner and tortured him for three weeks. Against the odds, he escaped the occupied territory with the help of close friends. After a long journey to Latvia and treatment at Bulduri Hospital, he and his wife moved to Germany to live near their daughter. He is now turning the history of Stara Zburivka into a book. One of the sheriffs, Volodymyr, joined Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Forces and is still serving in the Donbas. The other, Viktor, evaded the occupiers while in hiding and later found temporary refuge in Kherson. There he suffered a concussion in yet another Russian missile strike and is only now beginning to recover.

 Before the war, Stara Zburivka had a population of around 2,500. Today, this once vibrant community has dwindled to fewer than a hundred people, most of them pensioners. Almost every house in the village has either been destroyed or looted. Needless to say, there is no longer a school, a community centre or any bars – not even a shop. The Stara Zburivka seen in this exhibition no longer exists. What remains is Roman Bondarchuk’s film Ukrainian Sheriffs – a loving record, a reminder and, yes, a warning.

 Valdis Ābols

The exhibition is deeply personal to its creators. The time they spent filming in Stara Zburivka allowed them to become closely acquainted with the villagers, their daily lives, concerns and dreams. The war has devastated not only the creators’ own lives and homeland, but also the lives of everyone they came to know during the making of the film.

“Despite the film’s success, we were left with the feeling that we had not been able to show everything we had discovered about Stara Zburivka and its people. Now that the village no longer exists as we remember it, returning to these materials feels more important than ever. Through this exhibition, we want to preserve people’s voices and the memory of a world irrevocably transformed by war,” tells say the exhibition’s creators, Roman Bondarchuk and Darya Averchenko.

‘The exhibition is both a testimony to the world as it once was and an act of holding on to home — preserving people’s memories, their sense of belonging and the bonds between them.” - tells Roman Bondarchuk

The exhibition is an anniversary project of the 30th Baltic Sea Docs documentary film forum.

It brings together Roman Bondarchuk’s film Ukrainian Sheriffs (2015), video diaries by the filmmakers and materials from the Ukraine War Archive. Dedicated to the project authors’ native Kherson region, the exhibition includes unique archival material as well as video footage and photographs shot in Kherson and on the left bank of the Dnipro before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Roman Bondarchuk (1982) is an Ukrainian filmmaker and producer born in Kherson. His best-known films include Ukrainian Sheriffs (2015), Volcano (2018) and The Editorial Office (2024).

Darya Averchenko (1983) is an Ukrainian producer and screenwriter. She has produced the films: Euromaidan.Rough cut (2014), Ukrainian Sheriffs (2015), , Dixie Land (2016)Volcano (2018), Red Land (2022) and The Editorial Office (2024), and She has also been one of the key figures behind the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.

Together, the two creators also developed Kherson. The Steppe Holds, a multimedia exhibition dedicated to the Kherson region in ART ARSENAL in Kyiv (June-September) 2025.

The Ukraine War Archive (Архів Війни, ukrainewararchive.org) is a large-scale digital platform established in March 2022 by the Ukrainian NGO Docudays and Infoscope, a UK company specialising in data archiving and analysis technologies. The archive collects, preserves and provides authorised access to materials documenting Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
 

Exhibition authors: Roman Bondarchuk and Dar’ya Averchenko

Film producer: Uldis Cekulis, VFS Films, Dar’ya Averchenko, South Films

Project architects: Oleksandr Burlaka

Introductory text — Valdis Ābols

Exhibition producers in Latvia: Ilona Bičevska and Anna Keire, Avantis

Exhibition installation: Lauris Virsnītis and Arnis Jurgevics

Head of Art Station Dubulti: Inga Šteimane

The exhibition is based on materials from Kherson. The Steppe Holds, presented at Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv from 27 June to 28 September 2025 (Curator Kateryna Botanova, exhibition architecture Oleksandr Burlaka, project manager Natalia Stanko).
 

 Public programme:

 10 September, 18:30

An evening with Roman Bondarchuk at ISSP Gallery in Rīga, featuring a presentation of photographs and a conversation about documenting the Kherson region.

Marijas iela 13-k.3, Rīga

 11 September, 19:00

Opening of Ukrainian Sheriffs. Holding on to Home at Art Station Dubulti, Jūrmala.

 12 September, 13:00

Screening of the documentary Ukrainian Sheriffs at Jūrmala Culture Centre, Jomas iela 35, Majori, followed by a meeting with the film’s creative team.

Supporters: State Culture Capital Foundation, Jūrmala City Council, Samsung, National Film Centre of Latvia, “Avantis”, “Baltic Sea Docs”, “Vivi”, Art Station “Dubulti”, “ISSP”,  Ukraine War Archive and “Mystetskyi Arsenal”.

ABOUT ART STATION DUBULTI

Since 2015, Art Station Dubulti (Jūrmala, Latvia) has operated as an inclusive and experimental platform for contemporary art. A space that has redefined how contemporary art can inhabit and activate public infrastructure. Rather than being repurposed from one function into another, the Dubulti station has evolved into a hybrid environment where passengers and gallery visitors coexist. This overlap has shaped a layered and inclusive cultural experience, integrating contemporary art into daily life for a broader public. The Station’s dual identity guides the curatorial vision of its founder and director, Inga Šteimane. Supported by the Jūrmala City Council and the State Culture Capital Foundation, the programme maintains a high curatorial standard with a strong local and international pull.

Exhibition’s Ukrainian Sheriffs. Holding on to Home dates:
11 September – 2 October 2026

Opening hours:
Daily, 9 am – 6 pm

Admission:
Free

Media coverage:

03.09.26 10:49 https://ukr.lsm.lv/stattja/korisno/zaxodi-ta-mozlivosti/03.09.2026-ukrayinski-serifi-ne-zagubiti-dim-u-yurmali-vidkriyut-vistavku-pro-zittya-xersonshhini-do-ta-pislya-rosiiskoyi-okupaciyi.a661570/

September 3, 2026 https://echogonewrong.com/exhibition-ukrainian-sheriffs-holding-on-to-home-by-roman-bondarchuk-and-darya-averchenko-at-the-art-station-dubulti/