Zhovten (October) is one of the oldest cinemas in Kyiv. It was built in 1930. Since that time it has changed a lot. The building was partly destroyed during World War Two and afterwards it was rebuilt and modified several times.

The repertoire of Zhovten is mostly festival movies, art-house and short films. My favorite is a short films night – when they show short movies all night long. Also every year it holds an international movie festival called Molodist. It is popular among arty people. But the last several years the organization that rents the building has been struggling in keeping up the lease and saving the theater, because the government wants to break the contract and give the land to a big developer company to demolish the cinema and build something new and ugly.

There was a fire in 2014 and everyone is sure it was arson. The fire destroyed the main hall and the roof. There was a big march to save and restore the cinema and, thanks to the efforts of these people, money was collected and the new cinema hall is showing movies again!