Iryna Tsilyk

GRANTEE
Independent Filmmaker

Documenting Ukraine Grants

Those Behind Me

The years of the Russian-Ukrainian war have changed my personal life dramatically. It might be the voice of my trauma, but almost everything I’ve been writing and filming during last eight years is a reflection of the war in Ukraine.

At the moment, I’m working on the development of my new documentary film with the working title “Those Behind Me”. I intend to make a poetic essay documentary film about my generation. Ukrainians of my age have always lived in times of changes and in the shadow of every-minute-threat. It’s a sort of vicious circle and our traumas are deeply rooted in our past, especially those of the 20th century. For example, my great-grandparents were exiled to Solovki camp in the 1930s by the Soviet authorities. Almost every Ukrainian family has such stories.

Thus, I want to talk about Ukrainian past, present and future from my personal perspective and to make an intimate essay that could at the same time serve as a reflection of the collective portrait of Ukrainian society today.

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  • The Longest February: One Year of Full-Scale War
    There has not been a moment since the morning of 24 February 2022 left untouched by the Russo-Ukrainian War. A wry commonplace among Ukrainians is that February 2022 still hasn’t ended – we are now in its 13thmonth. It feels both impossible and essential to reflect on the past year, to think about where we stand now, and to envision the future. Here we present a selection of publications by members of the IWM community tied in some way to the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in English and German. Many of the authors represented here are part of the IWM's Documenting Ukraine program. New items are added on an ongoing basis. 
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