Director's Bio-Filmography:
Alisa Kovalenko (n. 1987 în Zaporozhye, Ukraine) a absolvit jurnalism la Universitatea Shevchenko din Kiev. Studiază regie de film la Universitatea națională de teatrtu, film și televiziune din Kiev. A regizat o serie de documentare studențești.
Lubov Durakova (n.1986 în Kharkov) a absolvit Facultatea de petrol și mine din cadrul Universității din Moscova. Studiază regie de film la Universitatea națională de teatrtu, film și televiziune din Kiev. A regizat o serie de documentare studențești
Director's / Curator's Statement:
1 - EN - At the beginning we had no idea to do film like this. But there was a life which have started to changed rapidly around us. It was a revolution, then the war and we were in the middle of it. In general, this film was born out of the two projects. Even before the revolution Liuba made a student film about me, and after the revolution, I began to make a movie about the war and volunteers in the east of Ukraine. With these projects we started to study in the Wajda film School in Warsaw. But when professor of School Wajda saw our materials they all came to the conclusion that we have to make only one project but with two lines. Because this way, we have a unique opportunity to make a universal story that combines historical events in Ukraine from Maidan to the war, as well as the very personal story of a single person (me) who`re changing under all these events. So, with this story of one person we can go deeper with showing all the tragedies that have occurred in Ukraine. We wanted to make a film of sensations and pain, film personal diary, something honest and sensual. And for me this film not only about me it`s about all young ukrainian generation which faced to very important questions, what do you have to do, personally, when an unexpected war break up in your country ? Do you stay at home, or do you have to fight to protect your country if this is your duty ? Many Ukrainians had this dilemma, and as a film-maker and an Ukrainian citizen, I was also faced personally to this question. When we were making this film, we were burning from emotions, we literally burnt into them. You have to imagine that we went through revolution, war, life and death. Many of us know somebody who did during those events, and that’s the case for me. We had to make this film, we wanted to be heard, heard about Ukraine, about our lives. Before the revolution, we had a normal life, and then we had to change, we had to grow up, as individuals, and to make important decisions and take our responsibility about very crucial questions for our country, our cities or ourselves. This is not only my story, similar thing happened with our friends who also like I had to go through a lot. So I still think that this is a movie about `how to become adult, how to grow up' - for individual person and for the society. We had to go through all these difficulties to growths and understand the value of life. There is always a price to pay in the struggle for freedom, without this price it`s even not worth to struggle...“ (Alisa Kovalenko, Liubov Durakova)