STORIES FROM THE CELLAR
STORIES FROM THE CELLAR
Performance
Ruslan is eight years old, loves his dog and his cat and fishes in a pond. It is a bomb crater that has now filled with water. His house in Moshchun burned down. Sometimes he cries when he talks about his experiences of war. The other children portrayed in the film find themselves in a similar situation. They sought refuge in cellars during shelling and sieges, lived on preserves and canned food. They lost parents and had to flee whilst leaving all their belongings behind. Myroslava, an eight-year-old ballerina, believes that her dead father will come back. 10-year-old Maxim, also a dancer, is afraid to sleep in the dark. Forests and fields are no longer accessible because of mines, houses in cities have been destroyed. This documentary by Tetiana Khodakivska and Richard Blanshard blends in excerpts from international TV reports about Russian crimes against Ukrainian civilians. What for some remain nothing more than television images, have been experienced by these children first hand. And yet, nevertheless, they remain children, as they dance, sing, and play - also war games, like 5-year-old Grysha. 11-year-old Ivanna has even written a fairy tale about the war, with wonderful illustrations of her own, thus turning to art to help process the horror that plays out around her.
Text: Kira Taszman
09.11.2024 | 18:00 | Kammerbühne (original version with English subtitles + simultaneous translation into German)
Tetiana Khodakiviska, Olena Danylova
Andryi Kalashnikov
Tim Obzud
Anton Baibakov
Goldcrest Films
Tetiana Khodakivska - Tetiana Khodakivska is an award-winning filmmaker, a 2024 Sundance Institute and Cannes Docs Spotlighted Project alumna, an alumna of the Institute of Documentary Film(IDF), a member of the European Film Academy, and a recipient of the Ukrainian Academy Award. Ms. Khodakivska works with multidisciplinary hybrid projects, participatory filmmaking, and visual ethnography to explore social paradoxes and themes such as mortality and belonging. Her creative documentary, "Enticing, Sugary, Boundless or Song and Dancesabout Death," explores the concept of death (Premiered at the Ji.hlava Film Festival, nominated for Best Documentary at the Ukrainian Film Academy Awards).Tetiana is particularly interested in examining society from a child’s perspective. Herperiod mini-series, "Angels of War," follows the stories of siblings during the SecondWorld War (Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.) Her recent documentary, "Stories from the Cellar," also portrays the war from children’s perspectives and will have its upcoming premiere at the 34th Cottbus Film Festival.
