“We believe that in this terrifying political situation, with a great threat of legalisation of one of the world’s greatest aggressors, this film can become a very important alarm for all democratic societies,” underlines Ukrainian producer Natalia Libet of Alisa Kovalenko’s new project, co-directed with Marysia Nikitiuk, in which six women share their traumatic experience of sexual violence and torture during Russian aggression in Ukraine between 2014-23. The 90-minute film will be ready May 2025.
The Impact goals of the project are many fold; to document survivors’ stories, improve cooperation between the authorities and the survivors, and to advocate for putting Russia on the UN ‘list of shame’ for CRSV (conflict-related sexual violence) crimes. In terms of community support, the production team aims to empower local networks of survivors through SEMA Ukraine [which campaigns for the eradication of sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon of war] to mobilise funding, and to highlight survivors’ unique needs. In terms of “fighting stigma & raising awareness” the goal is to motivate survivors to testify, create a supportive environment for them by raising awareness on a local level, and to make the CRSV topic highly visible globally.
“As well as being a unique document of the crimes committed, this film is also a powerful testament to human resilience and resistance,” director Kovalenko adds. “In our film, we do not talk about survivors as ‘victims’, passive and suffering, with whom everyone can only sympathise, but about survivors who do not give up and fight, and who can become a source of inspiration. Showing the power of survivors’ mutual support and solidarity, fighting together for justice, against stigma and silence, will encourage the audience to respond in a completely different way, not only with empathy, but also with the motivation to fight together in solidarity against evil and for the sustainability of democratic values in the world.”
Producer Libet further stresses that the film amplifies the voices of survivors, preserves their stories and serves as a tool for justice. “By advocating for justice and shining a light on these atrocities, we call for global action and solidarity, while sending a message of hope and strength to all survivors.”
Alisa Kovalenko has already established herself as a director of strong creative documentaries. Her We Will Not Fade Away (2023) won numerous awards and was nominated for the European Film Awards. Marysia Nikitiuk is a prominent Ukrainian director and scriptwriter whose first feature film (When the Trees Fall) world-premiered at Berlinale 2018. Her second feature Lucky Girl was selected for Tallinn Black Nights in 2022.
Libet and fellow producer Olha Beskhmelnytsina also boast impressive credentials, which include the recent Timestamp (Berlinale Competition 2025) and Intercepted by Oksana Karpovych (Ecumenical Jury Prize, Amnesty International Special Mention at Berlinale Forum 2024).
“Another strong element of the film’s impact is that it has a particular perspective from within the survivor community, as it is a survivor-driven film,” Libet adds.
“One of its strengths and uniqueness is that it explores this very sensitive issue from the inside, with maximum immersion. Alisa Kovalenko, one of the film’s directors, experienced the trauma of CRSV herself when she was captured in the occupied part of Donbas in 2014,” the producer stresses. “Alisa has a rare experience of working with trauma and with the community of survivors of captivity, torture and CRSV – Sema Ukraine. She has been a member of SEMA Ukraine since its establishment in 2019, has been deeply involved in this issue for years, and has participated in all major advocacy campaigns on CRSV in Ukraine, when this issue was hardly visible in society.”
Kovalenko underlines: “The rule ‘nothing about us without us’ is often heard in international human rights circles, and this is the unique case where this principle works best. That’s why there is a very close relationship between the protagonists of the film and the director, honesty and openness…What is also valuable about this project is that, in addition to its important human rights role, the film is highly artistic, profound, existential, psychological, rich in images and cinematic.”
