CHERRY BLOSSOMS
Marysia Nikitiuk
Directory Films
The CHERRY BLOSSOM tells about people in a post-traumatic state. Heroes who managed to survive during the Russian-Ukrainian war encounter a heroine from Bosnia, who survived the Balkan wars as a child.
NASTYA (12) and VIKTOR (38) escaped from the territories occupied by russia. His family was killed by russian soldiers, and Nastya's mother disappeared. They pretend to be a family and get social housing in a city near Kyiv. Nastya starts going to summer school, where due to uncontrolled aggression, the girl meets MAYA (35) a Bosnian psychologist from UNICEF, who went through war Balkan war in occupied Sarajevo, and sees herself in Nastya. As a teenager Nastya is burdened by the consequences of the war, she refuses to eat, brings a gun to school with her, and falls in love with Viktor, who sees her as his lost daughter. Viktor cannot cope with his pain and with Nastya and Maya trying to help him rubs her own forgotten wounds. CHERRY BLOSSOM tells a story about people in a post-traumatic state. Heroes who managed to survive during the Russian-Ukrainian war encounter a heroine from Bosnia, who survived the Balkan wars as a child. Against the background of fresh wounds, the old wounds of war begin to bleed anew, showing that war stays with people forever.
MARYSIA NIKITIUK / IMDB
MARYSIA NIKITIUK graduated from Kyiv Karpenko-Karyi National University. Writes scripts for films since 2012. Her shorts as a writer have been in programs of such film festivals as Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand, Cairo IFF, TISFF, etc... From 2014 Marysia started to shoot her own films as a director, and made three shot films: IN TREES, MANDRAGORA and RABIES. Her first feature film WHEN THE TREES FALL was premiered at 68th International Berlin Film Festival in Panorama section in 2018. In 2019 film EVGE by Nariman Aliev, Marysia co-wrote, was premiered in Cannes Film Festival.
Director’s statement
This is a story about people who lost their world because of the war and are trying to build a new one. But this process of recovery and finding new normality is very difficult. And we see children, that build barricades, and look for abandoned weapons in the forest. I want to show how the characters look for stability in this new normality, and how various protective mechanisms of the psyche - transfer, compensation, displacement, will affect people's lives. Also, I put into the story a heroine who survived the war in the Balkans as a teenager in occupied Sarajevo. She survived and adapted to life, but the scars of the war remained with her forever. In the spring, I met a journalist from Croatia in Kyiv, who as a child was evacuated from Vukovar, which was destroyed by the Serbs. Her motivations for coming to Ukraine were in her subconscious and at first glance led to retraumatization. We continue to communicate and at the moment I see that it leads to a certain therapeutic effect. This woman inspired me to create the character of psychologist MAYA. With it, I also want to show that when after the war we all continue our lives and grow up, the war will continue to live in us. I want to use a live camera with the effect of presence to convey the internal experiences of the characters, how they react, and how they experience the fear of intimacy. There are also poetic elements in the story, the heroine remembers cherry blossoms in an industrial town, which are covered by artillery explosions, and white flowers dyed the colour of blood. CHERRY BLOSSOMS are for me an image of a peaceful life that the heroes lost. That is why in the end, the heroine and her class plant small cherries that will someday grow and bloom again. Such poetic elements are planned to be shot with a static camera or with the use of stabilizing systems.
I want to use as much natural light as possible when shooting. I would also like to use real Ukrainian exterior locations to capture and convey the spirit of the times. If possible, I plan to involve non-actors, real people from real locations. It is important for me to combine the artistic truth with the truth of real time and place, of course it will depend on how the military actions unfold.
IGOR SAVYCHENKO / IMDB
IGOR SAVYCHENKO – producer, graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a master’s in Mathematics. In 2003 Igor moved into the audio-visual industry, becoming an internationally recognized film producer. He developed a talent for creative films at a very early stage and has more than 14 years of experience in the film industry. Films produced by Igor have been screened at more than 500 festivals and have won more than 80 honours, with 11 screenings and 3 awards at A-Class festivals.
Production company profile
DIRECTORY FILMS was conceived in 2012 to express our creative talents and focus our efforts in the development of Ukrainian Cinema. Our team is seeking original projects with a strong message that would inspire audiences to believe that words can change the world. Whilst we may be seen as idealists we remain grounded in reality which is why most of our films were successful at festivals and reached their audiences in the cinema and on television.