We Will Not Fade Away / My ne zgasnemo

Alisa Kovalenko: We Will Not Fade Away / Ми не згаснемо (UA/FR/PL/US 2023).

Ми не згаснемо
Alisa Kovalenko, 2023, Ukraine, France, Poland, USA, documentary, 100 min

Languages: Ukrainian, Russian

Subtitles: English

Kino K13, Helsinki: Kettupäivät, 23 Nov 2023

Kettupäivät 2023: " Synopsis: Matka Himalajalle tarjoaa hetkellisen pakopaikan todellisuudesta viidelle teini-ikäiselle, jotka asuvat konfliktin koettelemalla Donbassin alueella. Elokuva on kuvaus sukupolvesta, joka kykenee kaikesta huolimatta tunnistamaan elämän hauraan kauneuden ja juhlistamaan sitä. "

" Synopsis: For five teenagers living in the conflict-ridden Donbas region of Ukraine, a Himalayan expedition provides a brief escape from reality. A portrait of a generation that, in spite of everything, is able to recognize and celebrate the fragile beauty of life. "

...

Berlin Film Festival 2023: " “I don’t remember a single year in my life as well as 2014.” – “It’s as if a new timeline began at that moment.” 

"  Having grown up among the ruins, minefields, bomb shelters and coal mines of the Donbas, Andriy, Illia, Lera, Liza and Ruslan live in a world where, ever since 2014, shelling and gunfire have been as commonplace as the ever-present yearning for a better life. An expedition to the Himalayas gives the five Ukrainian teenagers the chance to fulfil this dream for a brief moment, before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February of 2022 ends up destroying the last remnants of hope. With its sensitive, unobtrusively perceptive gaze, the film paints a moving portrait of a generation of young people surrounded by darkness, who are nonetheless – or perhaps all the more – able to recognise and celebrate the fragile beauty of life. "

IDFA 2023: " The people of the Donbas region of Ukraine have been living with war since 2014. Young people suffer in particular, leading an uncertain, hopeless life in a rural area that has little to offer in the way of excitement anyway, and where a future as a miner seems inevitable. "

" We follow teenagers Andriy, Ruslan, Ilya, Lisa and Lera in 2019, during golden summer days, swimming in the lake, tinkering with a moped, rehearsing a play or helping in the garden. But these pensive shots keep being rudely interrupted by the raw reality of the front, just around the corner from their homes: the rattle of gunfire, distant explosions, the discovery of a rocket casing during a peaceful walk in the woods. "

" An invitation to go trekking in the Himalayas brings hope, and the five teenagers embark on an intensive training program to get in shape. Meanwhile, they talk about their dreams and plans for the future, determined to make something of their lives when the war, which has already taken up half their youth, is finally over. "

AA: The distinction of Alisa Kovalenko's We Will Not Fade Away is dignity. This is a chararacteristic it shares with Mstyslav Chernov's 20 Days in Mariupol. Both film-makers understand the force of restraint in a subject full of horror.

We Will Not Fade Away is a lyrical documentary of young people in the shadow of war. In Donbas, war started already in 2014, and it has become the overwhelming generation experience. Lisa, Lera, Andriy, Ruslan and Ilya spend a lovely summer holiday, dreaming of the future. Inspired by Valentin Shcherbachov (Щербачов), they start to plan a trek to the Himalayas. They exercise all summer to get in shape.

The aesthetical approach of Alisa Kovalenko is based on the contrast of the shadow of the war in coalmining Donbas and the yearning to get higher, first to domestic hilltops, and finally to Nepal, where the youngsters reach the Annapurna Base Camp.

The sublime of the nature is a life-saving counter-image to the vile conditions in the war-torn homeland.

I have never seen more beautiful footage from Nepal: the glowing red rhododendra, the breathtaking mountain paths, passages in the rain, the sense of infinity, the trek in the darkness before sunrise, the Buddhist prayer. "Walking through the fog felt like a dream".

The low definition of much of the footage (perhaps shot with a mobile phone) gives We Will Not Fade Away a home movie quality. But what is gained is an exceptional sense of warmth and intimacy. In the finale we see fields of sunflowers and glimpses of family life. And shocking American Graffiti style resumes of the protagonists: what happened after Putin's Feldzug on 24 February 2022.