“WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY” WINS AT DOCUDAYS UA IN KIEV!
Alisa Kovalenko's film delighted the jurors at Docudays UA and left the festival with the main prize.
The Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival is the only film festival in Ukraine with a focus on human rights. The festival was held annually in Kiev in March, and admission was free for the public. Last year, the event took place in a modified form at the Kijów cinema in Krakow during the 62nd Krakow Film Festival. After a year-long break, it returned to the Ukrainian capital.
The title of Alisa Kovalenko's film is symbolic, as if it were a manifesto of the organisers themselves. The festival has not faded away.
In We Will Not Fade Away we follow five Ukrainian teenagers growing up in small towns near a coalfield. Like their peers around the world, they struggle with boredom and the many frustrations of finding their own identity and path in life. However, these five live in the Donbass, where there has been war for years. Not only has the region been economically devastated, but there is constant fighting in the distance – and sometimes quite close by. The youngsters are struggling with reality, trying to find their way in all this chaos through drawing, photography, music and, above all, friendship. They rebel, go on adventures; bravely venture into minefields and coal shafts; they play in ruined houses, trying to make the most of their last golden hours of childhood. As they dream of escaping, an unexpected invitation arrives. Would you like to visit Nepal and trek through the foothills of the Himalayas? - a famous Ukrainian traveller asks them. Suddenly, there's light in the darkness. They train intensely to realise this seemingly impossible dream, recording their efforts in video diaries. As the situation in their homeland deteriorates, the threat of a full-scale Russian invasion looms. Will the hopes and dreams of these young people survive?
You can read more about Docudays UA at its official website.