Ukrainian Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk’s Traces is a difficult watch, but an essential one. Yes, we hear some shocking testimonies from survivors of sexual violence, as perpetrated by the Russian military on Ukrainian women and men since 2014. But rather than being a litany of war crimes, the film is more a testament to resilience. The subjects of the film are women who refuse to be silenced, choosing to stand with fellow survivors and, as Kovelonko tells Business Doc Europe, “put voice to truth.”
At the core of the film is Iryna Dovhan, head of SEMA Ukraine, an organisation dedicated to documenting the testimonies of survivors. Some of these survivors in turn collect further testimonies, all the time offering support, comfort and counsel.
“We need this memory base because memory is so fragile,” says Kovalenko. “We can say that the Ukrainian war is the most documented war in the world, but that doesn’t mean that it documents all the most important stories…it’s important also to go deeper in this reality because memory has also depth.”
“And it’s even more complicated because if you’re talking about other wars, other conflicts, many women started to testify after the war was over, after the conflict had finished. But here we still have the ongoing war, and also witnesses of these war crimes who can easily be killed by a Russian bomb, and there will be no memory anymore of this survivor,” Kovalenko underlines the necessity to record these testimonies now.
For the Ukrainian filmmaker, her chosen medium of doc (“the most powerful tool,” she describes it) has little to do right now with the business of entertainment. “I believe it’s the time for documenting crimes, documenting stories.”
“It’s a war of values,” she further underlines to Business Doc Europe. “It’s a war of freedom and unfreedom.”
Kovalenko is herself a survivor of sexual violence. After the Maidan revolution of 2014 she was captured, interrogated and raped by a counter-intelligence officer. It is not a story that she has told on film. “Some elements, of course, not the full story. I decided to give more light on other women. I didn’t want to talk about myself,” she says. “I became this instrument who can give voice to others, and who can voice others in a delicate, very understanding way, because I went through it. And I know how hard is it to start talking, and to talk publicly.”
Nor does she refrain from expressing her absolute loathing of the perpetrators of the sexual violence. “Somebody could say, poor Russians, they were obliged to go to fight on the front line and kill Ukrainians. But here they had a choice to rape, to torture. And nobody can deny this clear evidence. Those Russians made their choice and they used sexual violence as a weapon of war… It’s not only a post-truth world, it’s post-human, I would say, because we are losing human values.”
“For me, this film is the most powerful form to talk about this,” Kovalenko adds. “Because you see these women, you see their faces. They’re not covered. They’re not blurred. They’re ready to talk. They’re ready to sacrifice their privacy for the sake of truth.”
Kovalenko outlines a series of key impact goals that she wishes to implement, firstly to break the silence (and therefore the stigma) around conflict-related sexual violence, pointing out that 90% of former Ukrainian military and civilian captives reported torture and inhumane treatment by Russian military personnel. Secondly, she and colleagues are looking to strengthen survivor-centred approaches to justice and support, and continue/increase the practice of survivors helping newly affected men and women. In the process, survivors are reframed as “agents of change.”
Thirdly, she is looking to raise international awareness and accountability. “In global practice, CRSV (conflict-related sexual violence) is the most silenced and stigmatized crime in wars and conflicts. The film demonstrates how collective testimony can break stigma, influence policy, and contribute to post-traumatic growth – both individually and socially,” she writes in her film notes.
“When survivors are not just recipients of aid, but can become leaders, then they can change this reality around them,” Kovalenko ends.
