Skip to main content

Barbed wire and plastic flowers - fragments from Ukraine


In 2017 the Berlinale presented the Ukrainian documentary "Shkola nomer 3" as part of the Generation 14+ programme. Three years later a Ukrainian Filme made it into the programme again: "The earth is blue as an orange", providing insight into life in the Donbas - the border region between Ukraine and Russia. For even if presence in media decreases, the war on the border continues. 

The following text is a media-extraction: a collage of current Facebook posts of people I met on my trip to Ukraine in 2017. It is an attempt to convey the feelings of people whom, as an outsider, I cannot put into words. This is how this picture of current times is created, supplemented by analogue photographs taken during my journey to Ukraine.

BARBED WIRE AND PLASTIC FLOWERS 

About the Ukrainian normandíö, or the village Berdânsʹke, where the sea was mined. 

Today the cemetery is placed in front of a stone monument to the victims of the Holodomor, all over the square, which grows into an apple orchard that was bombed in the 1950s. The farmers are the goats, and the... 

The Soviet authorities destroyed the whole place in a few days. 

Тобі ще багато чого є, що сказати. 




People still die for their flag, for language, songs, history. 

75 years ago they were brutally deported from their homeland and oppressed while in exile in Central Asia by the Soviet rule under Joseph Stalin. Nowadays, after Russia's annexation of Crimea, and with the arrests, kidnappings and other human rights violations against Crimean Tatars in the peninsular, really feels like history repeats itself. 
#crimeantatar#deportation#humanrights#kyiv#ukraine 

Таня говорить з Настею про 
дискримінацію жінок на фронті, 
ЛГБТ-активізм та про підтримку, 
якої потребують ветерани. 
Show translation 

Saw me this, your, "my thoughts are calm" 
... well, something like that. 
Not honey, but not buckwheat either. 
Buckwheat with naked honor. 




The Konduktorka says: "Touch!" And I wonder what she has to do with it. 
That damn bus, gray city. Two doors, one in the front, one in the back. 
When I open my eyes: destroyed hospital, monument, plastic flowers.

 In the new episode of "Lives of Others" about what it is like to be a woman in war, 
a veteran koö in civilian life and in Ukrainian society. The link to the material is in 
the first comment. 
Read 

When the whole life is like a "непозбувна бентега" 

Woman waits to attend the memorial service for the victims of a UIA 
flight PS752 at Kyiv Boryspil airport. 
#kyiv#boryspil#flightPS752#memorial#ukraine#planecrash 

I love to travel with "Google Meps" where you can watch the streets. 
I sit in a room near Compas, and she says, "Ilya, what are you doing?" 
I say: "Travel! Aida with you!" and then we visit Washington, near the White House,
then New York on the Statue of Liberty, and end up in the fields of Paris." 
Rate this translation 

"I dream of being back in my own house and to sleep in my bed in a nightie. We have been sleeping in our clothes for so many years When they start shelling you immediately run to the cellar - there is no time to dress." 




I was 12. My father was eating dinner and 
there was a news report on TV about the Maidan. 
The news made me happy, but his words were a white noise. 
In a few weeks he's going to Russia and he's not coming back. 

Do you see the machine? Now we bring the wire and connect us to you.

The most important question is like the song of the hill. Who the hell did I give up?
23.02.2020, Liv Thastum

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The wind phone as an emotional escape

After Yuki & Nina in the 2009 Kplus programme, Nobuhiro Suwa returns to the Generation programme with another film. His new film Kaze No Denwa is in the 14+ programme. The day after the world premiere he takes a whole hour for Clara and me to answer our questions about the shooting process, the situation in Japan and other things. We make ourselves comfortable in the lounge of the Hotel Berlin, Berlin and exchange thoughts about Kaze No Denwa, Japan and the world with nice background music, while Isabelle kindly translates for us. Free Generation Reporters : How did the film team come together and how did you find Serena Motola, Haru's actress? Nobuhiro Suwa : It has been 18 years since I shot my last film in Japan. Since 2002, I have actually only worked with French producers. So I didn't know most of my new colleagues before. It was all very exciting and I was quite nervous, but everything went well. We did a casting for Haru, several girls showed up, but in the end

A First Tender Rebellion

„How do you know god exists?“ Spain in the 1990s. At a Catholic school for girls, Celia finds herself on the threshold to teenage life. Slowly she and her friends get into first contact with alcohol and parties, listen to music together, smoke their first cigarette and get tips from teen magazines. However, this is resolved lovingly and gently. No excesses, nothing too dramatic. These are the first experiences of a twelve-year-old. Especially the new girl in class, Brisa from Barcelona, influences Celia. They have a lot in common, but at the same time Brisa cannot identify with the strong Catholicism, something Celia has never questioned. This lets Celia’s world crumble. She begins to question circumstances that she had previously taken for granted. A first tender rebellion begins. At home, the otherwise very intimate relationship with her single mother turns out to be increasingly difficult. Celia begins to demand more and more information about her family's background, even he

The country of possibilities?

"We want to go Disney. One ticket please." - a review of Los Lobos It is the hope that drives the family to the USA. The hope for a better life, less violence, away from the father. A mother with her two sons, who from now on have to spend their time alone in a run-down room. Samuel Kishi Leopo tells the story of his own childhood in Los Lobos, backed up by his brother's music. The brothers Maximiliano and Leonardo Nájar Márquez give an incredible performance. Due to the warm atmosphere on set and the improvisation of Martha Reyes Arias, who plays the mother, it is not difficult for the two to act completely natural. There was a script, but it served more to define the plot than for the dialogues, because Martha gave the two boys all the freedom during the shooting and adapted to it and not only implemented Samuel's instructions herself, but also transferred them to the two boys. The enthusiasm of the audience can be felt from the very first second. The U