Expedition 49 by Alisa Kovalenko
During Sheffield DocFest Industry three works-in-progress and five new projects from Ukraine are presented to buyers, financiers, sales reps and festivals working within the international doc sector. These new projects complement the 14 works selected across the festival’s Film and Alternative realities programmes. The works-in-progress will be pitched June 28.
Sheffield’s support for Ukrainian filmmakers mirrors the international festival and market response, for which Docudays UA Head of Industry Darya Bassel is grateful. But there is still more to be done, she underlines, especially when it comes to the programming of Russian films.
“It’s more for the fiction world and for fiction festivals, because somehow the documentary community is more responsive,” she says. “But in the fiction world, [we’re] fighting a lot to get people to understand that Russian films and Russian culture in general has to be suspended until the war is over and until Ukraine is free again from Russian invaders. It’s kind of a struggle. But generally the support and the response is enormous.”
From a business perspective, international interest in Ukrainian projects is also very high. “I think everybody is looking right now for news from Ukraine, but also for these creative documentaries and reflections, and [for] a deeper understanding of what is going on in Ukraine, why and how,” Bassel explains. “Of course the competition is very high and it’s not like every Ukrainian production gets this response and these possibilities. People have to really compete a lot,” she underlines.
Bassel expresses her satisfaction at the three works-in-progress that will be presented June 28 in Sheffield. “All of them are enormously talented filmmakers and also what was important for us when we were doing this selection was to present a variety of documentary genres and creative approaches. So each project is really unique.”
In Roman Liubyi’s hybrid doc Iron Butterflies, co-produced by Arte, a butterfly-shaped piece of shrapnel found in the body of the pilot of Flight MH17 leads to the identification of the state that is responsible for a war crime that has gone unpunished. “It is an absolutely unique film, which combines observational documentary, open source footage, and also re-enactments made with modern dancers,” says Bassel. “When the producer and the director first approached me with this project, several years ago when it was only an idea, I thought, ‘oh my God, this is nonsense, you would never make this balance work.’ But then when I saw one of the first rough cut versions I was amazed because the film works absolutely…amazing. I think they succeeded, and now I know that they already have like new partners on board and it’s gonna be a very successful film.”
Fragments of Ice, directed by Maria Stoianova and produced by Alina Gorlova and Maksym Nakonechnyi] is described by Bassel as “a very intimate archival film.” In the doc the director’s father, a (post-)Soviet ballet dancer on ice, went on tour to the imaginary West and filmed during the crucial period of the 80s and 90s. “Rediscovering his VHS archive means growing up,” read the film’s notes. “Along the way, you may have illusions about the desired destination, but you have no doubts about what you want to leave behind.”
The teenage adventure documentary Expedition 49, also co-produced by Arte, tells the story of five playful Ukrainian kids who have been stuck on the frontline of the Russian war for more than half their young lives. But one day, an old man offers them a chance to walk to the world’s highest mountains: the Himalayas. Director Alisa Kovalenko is currently fighting on the front line herself, reveals Bassel.
“They [the works-in-progress] all are at the late stages of production/post production,” she adds. “I know that broadcasters are looking right now for something fresh and unique from Ukraine. And I’m sure that these projects can bring these new angles and a new understanding of Ukraine, its cultural background and social issues.”
The five new Ukrainian projects (see below) will be discussed with (not pitched publicly to) international decision makers over the course of Sheffield’s MeetMarket.
During the current war, how do Ukrainian docmakers describe their role, I ask Bassel. As soldiers? As chroniclers? “The common thing [for all filmmakers] is that everybody feels one hundred percent responsible for what’s going on and for what we can do. So everybody feels their responsibility to talk to the world and to fight for Ukraine in the cultural field,” she answers. “But it’s very different for each person, because for instance, somebody such as Alisa Kovalenko (the director of Expedition 49), she joined the army and is fighting with her camera in her hands.”
There are also filmmakers who have also remained behind to make creative documentaries, such as Olya Zhurba, who is making Displaced – described “as a sound-driven and immersive documentary in which the very body of war-torn Ukraine acts as its central character” – which Bassel is producing.
Then there filmmakers who prefer to create short stories and work very quickly online to release them to international media, working more as journalists, whose access to contacts and places enables them to benefit more greatly than international crews. “So, yeah, everybody just does what they can and what they feel is right,” Bassel signs off.
DOCUDAYS UA PROJECTS AT SHEFFIELD
Intercepted. Director: Oksana Karpovych. Producers: Giacomo Nudi, Rocío Barba Fuentes. An auteur observational documentary that offers an intimate reflection on the collective trauma of Ukrainians following the passage of Russian troops. Through Oksana Karpovych’s eyes, quiet observations show the painful aftermath of the so-called “Russian world” in the cities most affected by the current war…The existence of this film gives Oksana a necessary way of coping with what she has been through and the bare truth to be voiced and heard by the world.
Ivan & Marta. A Day Before the War Director: Sergey Bukovsky. Producer: Oksana Ivaniouk. This is a love story. Ivan Dziuba was a dissident from the 60s, author, literary critic and researcher. His speech at the premiere of the great Ukrainian film Wild Horses of Fire was taken by Soviet authorities as a call of defiance and protest against the Russification of Ukraine. Ivan was arrested by the KGB and spent about two years in prison. His wife Marta Dziuba tells the story of their life, peering into the past from the day when they celebrated Ivan’s 90th birthday. Ivan Dziuba, celebrated by Ukrainians as the conscience of the nation, passed away the day before Russia attacked our country. Isn’t it a symbolic case?
Nice Ladies Director: Mariia Ponomariova. Producers: Rogier Kramer, Maksym Nakonechnyi, Anna Zobnina, Alina Gorlova. A team of vigorous elderly cheerleaders called the Nice Ladies from Kharkiv, Eastern Ukraine, are preparing to compete in the European championship. Combating social prejudice and self-doubt, they are getting ready to contest their younger competitors in the only available 25+ category. The brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupts their plans and the team’s integrity. Will there be a place for cheerleading in times of dealing with trauma and displacement?
Shut the Fuck Up! Director: Taisiia Kutuzova. Producers: Stephane Siohan, Olga Beskhmelnytsina. Hatne, a village near Kyiv, is slowly being eaten by the capital’s expansion. Serhiy, a shy teenager aged 16, feels injustice and corruption everywhere. He investigates, engages with the community, and exposes the dirty schemes of officials on Facebook. He becomes a whistleblower. The local political elite can’t stand this. One day, a local political boss attacks Serhiy physically at a city council session and tells him to ″shut the fuck up.″
Amidst increasing violence against civic activists in Ukraine, Serhiy begins to study law. He gets a job as an assistant of Yevgeniya Zakrevska, a famous lawyer who has been defending the families of Maidan victims for years. Eventually he decides to run for office against the politician who tried to silence him….
Up in the Air Director: Oksana Syhareva. Producers: Oksana Syhareva, Nataliia Pogudina. Nine-year-old Sasha studies at a circus studio in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He devotes all his spare time after school to practising aerial exercises. His teacher and head of the studio, Svitlana (50), sees him as a talented and promising artist. There are 100 kids studying at the circus studio. Svitlana’s son Zhenia (24) is an aerial gymnast, too, the studio’s graduate, and he helps her with teaching kids. However, he has a different teaching approach and an ambition to develop his own modern circus.
After the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, the film took a dramatic turn. Zhenia stayed in Kharkiv to defend Ukraine. Svetlana and her 26 circus children have been evacuated to Budapest. The Princess of Monaco invited them to perform in Monte Carlo at a show which was organised to support Ukraine.
Sasha and all the circus kids learn how to balance in the arena. They never knew they needed to learn how to balance in life.
