Unbroken Women

The documentary «Unbroken women» is related to women arrested and tortured by pro-Russian paramilitary groups.
The project consists of three short documentaries featuring the stories of three female Ukrainian former prisoners: volunteers and civil activists. The purpose of the series is to increase awareness of human rights violations during the armed conflicts in Ukraine, in particular, to civilian POWs. The film aims to reduce stigma surrounding POWs to ensure they’re aware of their rights and to build support among the public and at the state level.

The main characters experienced strong tortures in captivity, but did not break. Today they continue to help veterans, former prisoners, internally displaced persons and current hostages. Also they testify in international courts about the war crimes in Ukraine. Behind these three women remain more than 3 thousand former prisoners who need official status and medical and legal assistance from the state.

One of the short dorcumentary tells about Iryna Dovhan, a former civil POW and a well-known volunteer in Ukraine. At the beginning of the war, she helped the Ukrainian army with food, clothes, medication, which was the main reason why she was captured. In the summer of 2014, she was abducted by pro-Russian soldiers of battalion “Vostok.”

She was severely tortured and threatened with rape. She was taken to Donetsk, to a busy intersection, and put near a pillar while being forced to hold a sign identifying her as a spy, reading: “She is killing your children.” Passersby beat her and spit in her face. At that moment, she was photographed by a Brazilian photographer Mauricio Lima. The photo appeared in The New York Times the very next morning and saved her life. She was immediately released.

Iryna’s photo became a symbol of the Ukrainian Donbas. She often hears from former Ukrainian soldiers that her picture inspired them to defend their country. Now this photo “obliges” Iryna to continue what she has begun: she’s helping soldiers and former prisoners by traveling around the world, and testifying about Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Her testimonies have been included in the reports of the European Parliament, the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court.

This project was made by Ukrainian journalist and documentary filmmaker Olha Bozhko (Volynska) from NGO «Human right protecting group «Sich» (Dnipro).