When Spring Came to Bucha + Away

When Spring Came to Bucha + Away

L

Genre

Documentary

Director

Mila Teshaieva, Marcus Lenz, Ruslan Fedotov

Run time

1h 34min

When Spring Came to Bucha

Director: Mila Teshaieva, Marcus Lenz

Country: Ukraine, Germany

Year: 2022

Runtime: 66 min

Cinematographer: Marcus Lenz, Mila Teshaieva

Editing: Yevgenia Danilenko, Julia Wiedwald

Music: DakhaBrakha, Ganna Gryniva

Sound Design: Andriy Niedzelsky

Production Company: Wildfilms

Russians bombarded Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin and other cities in the region following their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. By the time they retreated a month later, the damage was huge: buildings had been destroyed and there were corpses lying in the streets. Filmmakers Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz went in immediately, in time to film local people emerging from their shelters, but never showing the actual atrocities. That wasn’t necessary, as the trauma of war is clear to see on everyone’s faces, including those of the volunteers who rushed in from far and wide to help.

Over the course of several weeks, the filmmakers follow various residents as they pick themselves up from the smoldering ruins. The dead are identified, debris is cleared, and prosecutors start talking about a war tribunal. At first, all is despair—accompanied by sheer bafflement that they have been attacked by a country with so many ties to families and friends. But as the first blossoms of spring start appearing, these Ukrainians also reveal their resilience.

Language: Ukrainian, Russian

Subtitles: Estonian, English

Away

Director, cinematography and editing: Ruslan Fedotow

Country: Hungary, Belgium, Portugal

Year: 2022

Runtime: 28 min

Sound: Andrey Dergachev

Production: Ruslan Fedotow for DocNomads

A heartbreaking portrait of 16-year-old Ukrainian refugees Andrey and Alisa, who help out at a school for refugee children in Budapest. Andrey asks the children to draw pictures of something from back home in Ukraine. What beautiful things can they recall? He offers the example of his own grandfather’s cherry orchard. The children use confrontational, adult vocabulary to describe their experiences of war. A young boy earnestly goes through a number of battle strategies, and a girl provides a vivid account of a rocket attack.

After school, the young couple make colorful protest artwork out on the streets of the Hungarian capital, sparking discussions between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian passersby. The camera films the pair without commentary, capturing the everyday fun had by two teenagers in love, as well as the difficult phone calls to the home front. Reassuring stories of ripening cherries are welcome, but the sadness of the war, the imminent trauma and the growing awareness of their wrecked youth is unfortunately ever-present.

Genre

Documentary

Director

Mila Teshaieva, Marcus Lenz, Ruslan Fedotov

Run time

1h 34min

When Spring Came to Bucha

Director: Mila Teshaieva, Marcus Lenz

Country: Ukraine, Germany

Year: 2022

Runtime: 66 min

Cinematographer: Marcus Lenz, Mila Teshaieva

Editing: Yevgenia Danilenko, Julia Wiedwald

Music: DakhaBrakha, Ganna Gryniva

Sound Design: Andriy Niedzelsky

Production Company: Wildfilms

Russians bombarded Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin and other cities in the region following their invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. By the time they retreated a month later, the damage was huge: buildings had been destroyed and there were corpses lying in the streets. Filmmakers Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz went in immediately, in time to film local people emerging from their shelters, but never showing the actual atrocities. That wasn’t necessary, as the trauma of war is clear to see on everyone’s faces, including those of the volunteers who rushed in from far and wide to help.

Over the course of several weeks, the filmmakers follow various residents as they pick themselves up from the smoldering ruins. The dead are identified, debris is cleared, and prosecutors start talking about a war tribunal. At first, all is despair—accompanied by sheer bafflement that they have been attacked by a country with so many ties to families and friends. But as the first blossoms of spring start appearing, these Ukrainians also reveal their resilience.

Language: Ukrainian, Russian

Subtitles: Estonian, English

Away

Director, cinematography and editing: Ruslan Fedotow

Country: Hungary, Belgium, Portugal

Year: 2022

Runtime: 28 min

Sound: Andrey Dergachev

Production: Ruslan Fedotow for DocNomads

A heartbreaking portrait of 16-year-old Ukrainian refugees Andrey and Alisa, who help out at a school for refugee children in Budapest. Andrey asks the children to draw pictures of something from back home in Ukraine. What beautiful things can they recall? He offers the example of his own grandfather’s cherry orchard. The children use confrontational, adult vocabulary to describe their experiences of war. A young boy earnestly goes through a number of battle strategies, and a girl provides a vivid account of a rocket attack.

After school, the young couple make colorful protest artwork out on the streets of the Hungarian capital, sparking discussions between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian passersby. The camera films the pair without commentary, capturing the everyday fun had by two teenagers in love, as well as the difficult phone calls to the home front. Reassuring stories of ripening cherries are welcome, but the sadness of the war, the imminent trauma and the growing awareness of their wrecked youth is unfortunately ever-present.

Info

Rating

For All Audiences

Production year

2022

Global distributor

DocPoint Tallinn MTÜ

Local distributor

DocPoint Tallinn MTÜ

In cinema

2/3/2023