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Children of the military, children from the occupied and front-line territories, those who emigrated due to the war and lost their homes back in 2014 - made the film "What Have We Lost". On September 13, in Kyiv, a closed screening of the short film took place with the participation of the teenagers themselves, representatives of the Ukrainian film industry and journalists.
In the film, children tell personal war stories through poetic video images. For example, they try to grow deep in the forest, or they build together a house that Russian missiles wouldn’t be able to destroy.
"I always wanted to tell my story. As a displaced child since 2014, I faced the fact that until 2022, there was not much talk about the war in the media. That was my goal number one. During filming, I realized that I can talk about my pain, that I can be understood. Even when everything is destroyed and it seems that everything is over, there are people who will make a roof over your house with their own hands. There are those who will understand, because they live through the same thing," shares the co-author of the film Sofia Kalinich, 17 years old, from the Donetsk region.
The film was shot as part of an art therapy script course by the Voices of Children foundation and director Marysia Nikitiuk. For several months, 12 children from different regions learned to write scripts and experience the trauma of the war through them.
"Art therapy gives children the opportunity to creatively reflect on their personal war experience. During the course, they learned to convey their experiences through stories by writing screenplays for movies. The children were in the space where everyone had the right to be themselves, did not hear criticism and could create. They transformed their traumatic experience into strength and psychological resilience," says Olena Rozvadovska, Head of the Voices of Children Foundation board.
The teenagers took the course under the guidance of Daria Parshyntseva, a psychologist from the Voices of Children Foundation. The process of creating the 13-minute film was mentored by a team of professionals: director Marysia Nikitiuk, cameraman Sashko Roschyn, editing director Mykola Bazarkin and sound engineer Bohdan Barkovskykh.
"For me, this film is about the fact that the war destroys, Russia destroys our world, environment, life in the end. During these 3 months of the course, we talked a lot about our reality, personal stories. All this causes a lot of emotions, and you don't always understand what to do with them. Yes, we cannot use films and songs to bring back the people whose lives were taken away by Russia, but we can heal our own souls with this art," says Marysia Nikitiuk, the director, course curator.
The film "What Have We Lost" has already been sent to international film festivals so that more foreigners can learn about the war in Ukraine through the voices of children. Later, it will be available for public viewing.
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