After being closed for several months since the Russian invasion in February, movie theaters in Ukraine are starting to reopen, offering moviegoers a few hours of peace to ease the brutal routine of war.

KINO42 in the center of Kiev is one of 20 cinemas opened in recent weeks, but the only one underground.

The 42-person room, built four meters deep, is the only hall to have the status of a “cinema bunker” to protect itself from Russian bombings.

“This place is literally a cinema bunker, because it’s in a basement,” explains one of the hosts, AFP Ilko Gladshtein, during the launch of the Ukrainian classics programme.

The cinema that opened in 2019 was always in the basement. Gladshtein says this was once an unusual architectural detail, but is now the main attraction.

“KINO42 is currently the safest cinema in Kiev. We did not stop the screenings during the air raids,” he said.

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The 37-year-old filmmaker was stunned by the number of people who came to the night screenings, which were brought forward due to the curfew at 23.00.

“June is a tough month for film distribution, but I see people are hungry for movies. We did three fundraising screenings and sent a thousand dollars to the Ukrainian military,” he said.

“It gives us confidence to know that we are not only entertaining people, but also doing something important for the frontline soldiers.”

KINO42 has always prioritized Ukrainian cinema and since the invasion, the preservation of the country’s cultural identity has gained importance. The cinema has partnered with the Dovzhenko Center, the country’s largest film archive, and has grown from one screening to three per week, all packed to the brim.

Last week, KINO42 presented “Strange, Bizarro and Fantastic” (free translation), a series of animated shorts from the 1980s and 1990s. Tickets sold out three days before the premiere.

Stanislav Bitiutskiy, a 38-year-old researcher at the Dovzhenko Center, says that every social or political disaster requires a reckoning with Ukrainian identity.

“This is the first time it happened with the Maidan Revolution,” he told AFP, referring to the deadly clashes between protesters and security forces that led to the overthrow of Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

Now we need to redefine our identity through art,” he said.