EXPEDITION 49
Alisa Kovalenko
East Roads Film (UA, FR, PL), documentary
A Ukrainian teenage adventure documentary and a tender choral portrait of Donbas’ no future generation in the midst of the war with Russia. Only those who dream live high!
Five Ukrainian teens were suffocating in their little town on the Donbas frontline, longing for freedom. They dream, fight against boredom, do the 400 blows. The coal mines close and the war rages on for eight years. Their existence seems to be locked. One day, an old explorer invites them on a unique therapy expedition for war kids in the Himalayas. For the first time, they see a way out to the world outside and a chance to change the course of their lives.
ALISA KOVALENKO / IMDB
ALISA KOVALENKO was born in South-Eastern Ukraine in 1987. She studied at the Karpenko-Kary Cinema University of Kyiv and at the Andrzej Wajda School in Warsaw. Her debut feature-length documentary ALISA IN WARLAND, a personal diary through revolution and war in Ukraine, had its World premiere at IDFA 2015 First-appearance competition. HOME GAMES (2018), a social fairy-tale about the broken dreams of a young female football player, appeared at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018 and was again at IDFA, playing in 100 festivals (11 awards). In 2021 HOME GAMES was the first Ukrainian creative film acquired by Netflix. In 2018, Alisa directed BEAUTIFUL GAME, a 10 part documentary series for Current Time TV. She’s programmer of the new international documentary competition of Molodist Kyiv FF, Ukraine’s oldest festival. She’s a member of the European Film Academy (EFA).
Director’s statement:
8 years ago, when the war started, I went to Donbas, filmed the war head-on burning inside. I left part of my soul in Donbas and thought I would never go there again. 5 years ago, I met in Kyiv an old explorer, VALENTYN, who shared with me a strange dream - taking children from the war zone to the world’s highest mountain, to give them a new horizon. It was such a beautiful dream that I wanted to be part of it. When I started filming those kids, I had a feeling of déjà-vu - so many things reminded me of my own childhood, my grey metal city, with its huge metal works. The crisis of the 1990s. My parents, metalworkers, struggling with poverty. The atmosphere of the end of the world. I remember how much I dreamt of getting out of there. But instead, we, children, invented millions of entertainments, looked for treasures, to create a shield against depression and dullness. We were dreamers. That's why the attempt of my characters to illuminate the grey world around them evokes many things deep inside me. I do a film about the power of dreams, again shattered by the war Russia has unleashed to destroy Donbas forever.
Where are we at?
Total budget: 371.738,00 EUR
Financing in place: 275.987,00 EUR
Sales agent: /
Territories available: World, except Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany
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Production company profile
EAST ROAD FILMS is a French documentary production, geographically established in Kyiv in 2017 by Stéphane Siohan, a French author and documentary producer. East Roads Films produces author-driven and creative documentaries from Eastern Europe, focusing specifically on Ukraine, Belarus and Caucasus. We also produce high-quality content for televisions and digital platforms and well-known media.