It’s been almost three years since Russia started the war in Ukraine's eastern Donbas. The truth is though that the main fight has dislocated to the mainland where thousands of people whose life, home, health or life have been ruined by the struggle to live their lives and suffer their own personal consequences of Ukraine’s fight for freedom.
And that’s exactly the story a new Ukrainian documentary Return tells. The
movie consists of four short films and each of them tells a story of post-war
lives of people who were injured at war either physically or mentally.
It is unlikely we talk to them; it is unlikely we even meet them. They disappear
from the radar of journalists and volunteers a couple of months after they are
back from combat, done with the treatment or removed from the danger. They are
not labeled with the “war” stickers, so they have to face the upcoming
challenges alone.
However, these four stories are about success and optimism. The documentary
is a joint project of Internews Ukraine and Free People’s Employment Center, a
Ukrainian NGO aiming to help Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers adopt to the
post-war life. All the four movie protagonists are the NGO’s wards.
War volunteer Oksana Nezhalska, originally from Luhansk, has moved to
Ukrainian controlled territories after the city occupation and became a
volunteer, bringing food and other necessities to the old people who stayed in
the villages located in the ATO zone. During one of such trips Nezhalska’s car
hit a landmine, the woman lost both legs and had to learn living the whole new
life.
But, just like three other movie characters, the woman has never lost her
spirit. After the rehabilitation course in Ukraine and Austria with the help of
Free People’s Employment Center Nezhalska moved to Lviv to study tourism
business. The woman says she got an invitation to participate in the movie last
July and never hesitated. “Picturing the success stories like ours really
motivates boys and girls who come back from war and have no idea what to do
with their lives,” she explains.
A former programmer, 25-year-old Maksym Ilchenko from Kramatorsk, lost his
eye during the war and almost all the sight in his other eye. Now he has to
come back to the life of an unemployed. And so he does with the help of the
volunteers and his family.
The family is what failed another war hero, a sniper, and a volunteer
soldier Mykola Zmievskyi. His wife divorced him as she couldn’t live with
someone who “was killing people” and Mykola was too stressed to be able to
explain. Now he has to adopt to the new reality in which he is completely
alone.
Zaporizhzhya journalism student Ivan Zakaliuzhnyi lost his arm and an
eye in the Illovaisk battle, but came back to complete the studies to
accomplish his goal – becoming a mayor of his hometown.
Every piece consists of the interviews with the war heroes and includes
comments of psychologists, family members and volunteers who helped them to
adapt. Each short film is 25 minutes long and tells a separate story, though united
with the main idea – it is possible to overcome whatever happens to you if the
people around are not ignorant.
“People tend to forget about the fighters and the
soldiers coming back from war fear they won’t be able to keep living their
usual lives in the society, so we decided to support the movie to show that it
is possible to live the full life and stay productive after war,” says Wayne
Sharp, the director of Internews Network in Ukraine. Internews
has financially supported the movie production.
Nezhalska says she watched all four movies, including her own, with the
tears on her eyes. “One man in the field is no warrior,” she says and adds that
her success consists of the little bits that every person she met since the
moment she opened her eyes after the explosion has added.
“We don’t need compassion, but we need help to resume living the full
lives,” she says. The woman still studies to become a tourism manger, dreams of
putting together a good team and finally start a project helping disabled
people to travel.
The movies were presented at Zhovten cinema on June 15th and are now
available with the English subtitles at the Kyiv Post website.
