Ukrainian writer and filmmaker Natalya Vorozhbyt, whose film Bad Roads was her country’s entry to the best international film Oscar this year, has told Screen of her perilous journey from a village just outside Kyiv to western Ukraine this weekend and the impact of the Russian invasion on her new film.
“If you are in Kyiv now, it is impossible to leave. The Russian troops are surrounding Kyiv,” said Vorozhbyt, speaking through an interpreter..
As she wasn’t in the city itself, she was able to leave along with her teenage daughter, her mother and her cat. A road journey of 500km took 30 hours. “There are some roads already bombed so you have to take some diversions and there are many cars on the road,” she said.
At the time the Russian invasion began, Vorozhbyt had been a few days away from completing her new film, Demons, which explores the relationship between a Russian and a Ukrainian.
“The materials [from the film] are safe because they are uploaded to several server” she said. “However, the last four days of shooting were supposed to take part in the eastern part of Ukraine where now there are already Russian troops who behave like they’re the owners of that land.I can’t imagine how I can go back there.”
Frustration at Russian filmmakers
Vorozhbyt expressed her disappointment at the response from the Russian film community to the invasion.
“I can’t understand it,” she said. “Over the last eight years [since the Maidan revolution in 2014 and the Russian annexation of Crimea], I felt some pity. I sympathised for their situation. But I can’t do it anymore. This lack of response [from Russian filmmakers] is absolutely frustrating. It is not just about Ukraine. It is about their own freedom. They’ve been keeping silent for so long and now, in this critical situation, they still don’t do it [speak out].”
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