As the war in Ukraine moves into its third year, a surprising story of resilience emerges: how Ukrainian children are experiencing their new normal inside an active war zone.
Following four children throughout Ukraine— 11-year-old Ivanna in the Kherson region, 8-year-old Ruslan in Moshchun, 9-year-old Myroslava from Mariupol, and 10-year-old Maksym in Bucha— we learn their heartbreaking perspectives of the ongoing war along with their creative methods of perseverance. Ivanna writes and illustrates original fairy tales of vegetable armies vanquishing Russian soldiers that she concocted while hiding in a cellar for over 250 days. Ruslan fishes from a missile-created pond while dreaming of rebuilding his bombed out house even grander than before. Myroslava does gymnastics and reminisces about her father who will never return from the frontline. And despite night terrors, Maksym dances and rollerblades with aplomb.
The war has undoubtedly reshaped these children's lives. The realities of warfare, starvation, and death has required them to take on responsibilities beyond their years, penetrated their general understanding of the world, and left an imprint on them recognizable to their parents, who tearfully worry about what lies ahead for their kids. And yet in the face of such horrors, these children's sense of imagination and world building lives on. When speaking ill of the Russian invaders, frustrations are still verbalized in an innocence befitting children. They mourn what has been lost yet find joy in what survives and maintain spirited pride in their national identity.
Directed by Academy Award-nominee Betsy West and shot by an all-Ukranian crew, Once Upon a Time in Ukraine shows life behind the frontlines as seen through the eyes of the children processing trauma in real-time as they become poised to inherit a country whose future has yet to be written.
FILMMAKER'S STATEMENT: "Producer Earle Mack initiated filming in 2023 to serve as a companion to the ongoing news and documentary coverage of the war in Ukraine, and to give a rarely seen and authentic picture of life for families and children in a war zone. When I came onboard the project, the brave Ukrainian team that Mack had assembled— cameraman Andriy Kalashnikov and field producer Vova Sobotovskyi— had flown all over the country, including to the dangerous Red Zone, to capture extraordinary verite scenes of children living their lives behind the front lines.
What struck me particularly about this footage, beyond the obvious horror of the devastation, was the children's inventiveness and resilience. With their parents and a psychologist standing by to ensure their well-being, Ivanna, Ruslan, Myroslova, and Maxym speak openly about their lives today and their hopes for the future. They are survivors, and proudly show how they have transformed backyards and playgrounds destroyed by missiles, invented fairy tales where vegetable armies vanquish Russian attackers, and carried on the Ukrainian tradition of music and dance in bombed out studios.
In editing the film, we were careful not to linger unnecessarily on painful, emotional moments. We leaned into their matter-of-fact approach to their new reality and celebrated their playfulness."
— Betsy West
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