"Mariupol. Reconstruction." A film about a city that is no longer

"Mariupol. Reconstruction"-a film-travel film in the past in search of a hometown. The main character of the film - she and the director - Svetlana Lishchinskaya shares her personal experience, and also meets with refugees from Mariupol and tries to restore the appearance of her hometown before the war. Her interlocutors are people, thanks to whom the city bloomed and developed, people who put their whole soul into the city.

Like the author, they were all deprived of home and city after the outbreak of war. Svetlana and her respondents are trying to reconstruct Mariupol through their memories, personal archives and photographs that they managed to save after passing filtration checkpoints. Spectators become witnesses of the diary confession of the author, in which she says goodbye to her favorite place.

Svetlana Lishchinskaya - Ukrainian film director. Svetlana began the path to documentary cinema in 2014 on the Euromaidan SOS project. The right to dignity. " In 2017, she became the co -author of the documentary almanac "Invisible Battalion" about women in the war.

We talked with Svetlana Lishchinskaya about work on the picture. The film will be available on the YouTube channel "Present. Doc."

- Your film is called "Mariupol. Reconstruction." What did you want to reconstruct?

- There is nothing really to reconstruct. I wanted to save fragments of what was until it was finally erased from my memory. Although, probably, they will not be erased. You know, when a person has a house, he collects some photographs, some little things that are dear to him, and he saves them. And it was an attempt to save these little things, grains.

- You explain in the frame why people refuse to give interviews. Many are still traumatic and not ready to speak psychologically. How was the search for heroes? How many people refused?

People left Mariupol infected with fear

- At first I wanted to go through my friends, but my hand did not rise. Because I am inside the situation, I know these all people personally, and I understand that they left and they are not up to an interview. They need to help. I don’t know why, but I found it inappropriate to contact them. Therefore, I called the volunteers who are engaged in Mariupol refugees. And through these volunteers we found heroes.

It was such that people agreed, and then wrote in tears, called, refused and still apologized. I told them: "There is no need to apologize at all." It was very difficult for people to talk about it. Many agreed only because we were advised by trusted people whom they trust very much. Many were afraid. They left there, infected with fear. We cannot understand this, we live in a free world. But when our army enters Mariupol, we will see all the horror. Bucha and everything else rest.

- Have you tried to contact people who were evacuated from Mariupol to the side of Russia? Did your heroes mainly went through Ukraine?

- Since the task was not to make a film about the horrors of the situation around Mariupol, we did not emphasize this at all. Each of our respondents had an incredible story behind his back - a whole blockbuster. Everyone had something to tell. You can make a separate film about each. But we had another task. We tried to choose people who were important for Mariupol who participated in his life. These are people who created and made him the way he was.

Frame from the film

- In your film, many say that Mariupol is gone. There will be another city. Although the heroine - journalist Anna is sure that after the liberation the Mariupol residents will return and the city will be even better. At the same time, another hero - an archaeologist - believes that it is necessary to preserve damaged buildings. And the third hero asks a very correct question: is the theater possible in that place, after all that happened there? How do you answer this question?

- Impossible. Categorically no. After all, under the rubble of the theater, a bunch of bodies of the dead. This is a very traumatic topic for me.

- You shot the main part of the film in the Dnieper. Why there?

- We were going to shoot in Zaporozhye, but at the moment when we had already agreed with the volunteers, the situation began to heated around Zaporozhye. We did not know people, we wanted to get acquainted on the spot and then receive consent to shoot. And before sending, the military from all sides advised me not to go there. Because there was a threat of a boiler - and getting out of there would be problematic. And we very quickly, in one day we found the Dnieper volunteers and came there - and began to look for people.

- Do you think you closed this farewell to yourself with Mariopol? Is it possible to continue the picture?

I have not finished the history of relations with the city

- In the process of working on the film "Mariupol. Reconstruction" I cried, talked. He helped me partially live the loss. But I did not finish the history of relations with the city. I have been working on another film about Mariupol for a long time, I started shooting it before the war.

The theme of the film is the free courses of the Ukrainian language in Mariupol. But then, when I started, many told me that it was a provocative, slippery topic. And it was difficult to get funding. And I was interested in shooting how Mariupol feels what kind of self -identification there.

When the war began, the film was developed, I dragged something for him. It is called "a little stranger." And I am sure that I will finish him in the liberated Mariupol. Soon we will go to the Leipzig.doc film festival to submit a project. There will be no horrors in this film. There are many people who want to remove them about them.

Frame from the film

- You have a very personal, intimate story. An important part of the film is occupied by archival materials, your personal and your heroes. Did people easily give you their photos, videos?

- Not everyone easily gave archives. For example, Anya, a journalist, did not give it because at the moment when we mounted, her mother, whom she took out, died. They left Mariupol in the early days when the city was still open because it was seriously ill. She saved her then. Therefore, I just took photos from her Facebook page.

All all the time were in suspense, waited for some tricks, they were afraid that I would begin to talk about the political situation

Some did not preserve photos on the phone, video, because many cleaned the phones for departure. It was especially difficult to ask for texts of correspondence, screenshots. These are all authentic texts. The phone in wartime is a very dangerous thing, they were very afraid to give these texts. It was more difficult than asking for videos and photos. People were afraid that somewhere the word or contact would come out, and therefore not everyone gave screenshots.

Many were very afraid, they said: we will not talk about politics. We answered them: "We will not ask anything. We will talk about the city. About how it was there." Everyone was in tension all the time, waited for some tricks, they were afraid that I would begin to talk about the political situation, because many have some relatives, relatives in the occupied territories. Many do not know what will happen to Ukraine.

-Do you have any of your friends who went to the other side? Who adheres to other views?

- Yes. My native cousin does not understand what Ukraine is, and perceives all this in hostility. Although my aunt, her mother, she is 84 years old, she is for Ukraine. They swear all the time. The sister has a husband from Krasnodar, they often went there. And he supports Russia. The sister sent her daughter to St. Petersburg to the "Scarlet Sails", to Yevpatoria. Although it is possible to send it to Germany. It scares me that she now went to study at school - and is studying in Russian textbooks. I look at the groups on the Internet about schools in Mariupol and I can say that I would not give my child to such a school.

Frame from the film

- Since in your film you are not talking about politics, have there was no idea to include their evidence?

- They are in Mariupol. I cannot make them for my film. They have no connection. Normal people do not understand this. Mariupol was chopped off from the Internet, from mobile communications. This city is in complete isolation. And there they build some quasi. And they cannot communicate with anyone. I can’t even take an audio interview for my film. If it turns out to be caught somewhere, then it looks like this: one word is heard, the other is not. I tried to agree with them, but they perceive everything with bayonets.

- Did you tell them that this will be about the city of the film? They cannot deny that the Mariupol that was no longer?

Russia first turned off access to information and began to impose its narrative

- Of course, they cannot. My apartment, the apartments of all our relatives burned down. Everything, nothing. But they just have a great resentment of our government. That they were not saved. That when there was all the blockade, they were abandoned. After all, Russia first turned off access to information and began to impose its narrative. People who, before this, have not very versed in the situation, receive information: "They abandoned you! Nobody needs you!" And they are in a very great insult.

Why do not many leave Mariupol and from the eastern regions? Because they have this idea: "Who needs us there?" I say to my relatives: "Come!" Yes, you need to climb a little, but everyone here is very supported. There is humanitarian aid, we have a camp for immigrants here in Kyiv, a lot of people want to help. And if you just trust people, the world, then everything will be. But they do not believe it.