Aleksandr Balagura was born in 1961 in Luboml, then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Soviet Union). After studying at the Faculty of History of Kyiv State University (1981–1987), he became a director at the Ukrainian Studio of Documentary and Chronicle Films (1989–1998), participating in documentary television programs.

His first independent film, “To Our Brothers and Sisters” (1990), received the Grand Prix for Best Documentary at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence. In 1991, “Widow Street“, filmed in a Roma village on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, was screened out of competition at the same festival.

Between 1990 and 2000, he made a dozen documentaries exploring memory, photography, identity, and historical traces. Among them, “Antologion” (Ukrainian Film) (1996), an experimental montage of fragments from Soviet-Ukrainian films celebrating 100 years of cinema, was widely distributed and acclaimed in video art and experimental cinema circles.

Based in Genoa (Italy) since 1998, Balagura pursues an independent career. He directed: “Pausa Italiana” (2004), “Wings of a Butterfly” (2008), “Textura Lucis” (2009), “Life Span of the Object in Frame” (2012 — Special Jury Mention at FIDMarseille), “Loli Kali Shuba” (2013), then “Story for an Empty Theatre” (2016, with Cesare Bedogné), selected in more than 30 festivals and awarded as best experimental documentary film.

His work combines documentary and experimental forms, questions the status of images, collective and personal memory, often through photography or old films, and engages in a reflection on cultural belonging, the passage of time, marginalized communities (notably Roma) and post-Soviet Ukrainian identity.