Occupation

Spring and summer 2014, Luhansk. Life in the city and in the country as a whole was broken in two. Before, it was peaceful existence of a proletarian city. Afterwards, war and occupation came. Madness, which could not be believed even a few months earlier.

I described these events in detail in the book I, an Eyewitness. Notes from the Occupied Luhansk. But the text cannot convey all of my testimony. I filmed and collected a huge video archive, which required systematization. In fact, it needed thinking and rethinking. In the end, memory is not just a set of reflections. It is a lesson, a set of conclusions, a way to prevent future mistakes. It is difficult to accurately determine the time when the trouble began. The trouble that has already claimed more than 10,000 lives and broken millions more. Some people think that everything started in the evil year 2014. I do not think so. In order to understand the causes of the disaster, its background must be considered in the historical context. We need to immerse ourselves in modern history at least.

I deliberately delayed releasing this film, which I completed in 2016, to further distance myself from those events and look at them again with a fresh, unblinkered eye. Spring and summer of 2014 have pierced me with a painful splinter for all time, and that year, like a shadow, will probably always follow me.

After the release of the five-episode series Luhansk. The Nineties, which I shot before the war, people told me repeatedly that the film was about... the war. The upcoming war. Indeed, almost every frame of that film was filled with anxious premonitions. Its last words warned of “the blood of future generations,” which should not be allowed to be shed. Now is the time for another film, one telling the story of occupation. It has ultimately come down to four episodes. I shot it for reflection, rethinking, and memory, and not at all for creating sensations, trash stories, and other elements of TV formats.

This work was done FOR HISTORY AND FOR TRUTH. It is especially so since my book, which has gone through several editions, has effectively sold out. Those caring about the TRUTH of this book can sponsor its re-publication by visiting Den’s website at https:// day.kyiv.ua/uk/blagodiyniy-fond-spriyannya-iniciativam-gazeti-den.

Photo by the author