After Olga Lucovnicova found a series of letters from her Russian grandmother, who committed suicide in 1989 just as the USSR was beginning to fall apart, the director felt compelled to travel from Europe to Russia in order to unravel some deep-rooted family secrets.
When she go there she discovered that there were several other suicides in her family. Her great-great-grandfather threw himself under a train after returning from the First World War. Her 14-year-old second cousin overdosed with pills a few years ago. In her film she is looking to draw a parallel between their tragic fates and that of Soviet and Russian history.
“I’d never been in Russia, but these letters urged me to go there, to the homeland of my grandmother, together with my father to meet my family and explore my unknown family history in order to better understand myself,” she explained during CONNEXT 2023. “As I discovered their destinies [those of the suicide victims within her family] I start asking myself, is this a result of a broken DNA in our family or the legacy of a harsh Soviet history?” Whatever the answer, her search offers a unique opportunity “to end this toxic cycle of family tragedy and family secrets passed down through generations.”
Talking previously to Business Doc Europe when pitching her project at CONNEXT 2021 (before the Russian invasion of Ukraine), she explained the intensely personal aspect of the story she is telling, after the discovery of her grandmother’s correspondences. “These [are] letters which are all older than me, and in these letters I could read for the first time about her life from her point of view, because I never met her,” she said. “But at the same time, all my life, I heard from my father that I’m very similar to her. So in a way I am searching for myself through discovering who my grandmother was.”
Lucovnicova presented the work-in-progress together with producer Frederik Nicolai of Brussels-based production company While We’re Here, who was a mentor on her Berlinale Golden Bear and European Film Award-winning graduation film My Uncle Tudor.
He explained that the film had Volya Film (NL), OWH Studio (MD), Microfilms (RO), Al Jazeera Balkans and VRT Canvas on board as partners, and is awaiting the results of his Eurimages application to “close our financing.”
“We started the development of this project about three years ago, and meanwhile, the geopolitical situation has changed intensively, which makes this film even much more important,” he said, adding that he plans to release the film at the beginning of 2025, and is currently looking for a sales agent, festivals, broadcasters, and platforms.
“Olga is a very talented young female director and I really want to reach her generation with her film because with this very intense, brave, and sincere story she takes us really to the heart of the geopolitical changes far away from all the polarized debates on social media, and therefore we’ll also invest in impact producing and outreach,” Nicolai signed off.
