Private Project

Safe Unsound

Displaced Ukrainians navigate a now forgotten crisis. In rural Ireland, three families rebuild their lives with courage and hope. Kate, a corporate lawyer, juggles retraining in a foreign legal system with helping her children adjust to a new school - and life without their father, who’s been conscripted. Victor, a retired father battling memory loss, works to bridge language barriers and find belonging in a local men’s group. Meanwhile, Maryna and her children, facing housing insecurity and relentless financial strain, take things day by day while striving towards a sense of normality. Together, they prove resilience knows no borders - even far from the front lines.

“A documentary for opening people’s hearts”.
Inna Yegorova, Second Secretary, the Embassy of Ukraine to the UK

“I never imagined that a story about trauma could also be so profoundly healing”.
Yaroslava Matvieienko, journalist and historian

“Underscores the importance of remembering that behind these vast numbers lie the heartrending stories of real individuals”.
Dr Olesya Khromeychuk, Director, Ukrainian Institute

“Exactly what happened to my family”.
Kristi Kopaczewska, Trustee, Women Fight for Ukraine

  • Daniel James Baldwin
    Director
  • Daniel James Baldwin
    Producer
  • Hannah Tookey
    Producer
  • Jackie Teboul
    Director Of Photography
  • Daria Korsak
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    53 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    May 28, 2025
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    Ireland
  • Language:
    English, Russian, Ukrainian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:35
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Daniel James Baldwin

Daniel is a UK-based writer, director, and producer, with a background in anthropology from UCL, and documentary training under Mike Yorke, former member of the BBC’s Ethnographic Film Unit.

For 15 years, Daniel has balanced creating commercial audience research films for broadcasters like the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Netflix, with independent films through We Dream Films, a collective co-founded to tell socially impactful stories. Their first documentary, exploring the European self-publishing comics scene, premiered at the London Short Film Festival. They've since partnered with international organisations on impact documentaries: Street Stories with WWF highlighted the plight of nature, Debt Shadows with ACCA addressed payday loans, and Sea Change with Barclays helped raise £250,000 for a sailing charity for disabled people.

His role as Creative Director for The Outsiders, a research company championing marginalised voices, led to the making of Safe Unsound. On which he has re-united with DOP Jackie Teboul, following their award-winning collaboration on magical realism climate short The Promise.

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Director Statement

Safe Unsound started when I met three families who had been displaced by war. An encounter instigated by my friend Steve Lacey, who is a devoted supporter of Ukrainian people and whose company champions marginalised voices. Victor, Kate, Maryna, and their children had left their homes for hotel rooms in a remote Irish town earlier that week. They were from different generations but united in their experience of this conflict by a stifling sense of limbo and isolation in a foreign land.

The impact of loneliness is something I have lived with for years. I was dismayed that millions of Ukrainian people were being severed from what they know and who they love. But I felt that the way the news media focussed on the scale of the crisis obscured the human consequences for normal people like Victor, Kate, Maryna and their children. So, I asked permission to document their experience over the next few years in the hope that people like me, in host communities, would be moved by the day-to-day worlds of those making temporary lives in our neighbourhoods with no idea how long they would be there. I wanted to feed our collective sense of compassion and create something that displaced Ukrainians could connect with.

A long-term approach created space for me to carefully navigate the emotional nuances of a story of this kind, playing out in three different households. Following these families for a year and a half allowed me to witness ebbs and flows in fortune, find ways to capture understated resilience and observe subtle, tender moments. It also allowed me to collaborate in unique ways with my crew. In particular, Daria Korsak, a young editor displaced from Ukraine, was as crucial on location as she was in the edit suite. Working with her as a translator in Ireland deepened our creative partnership, enabled us to shape an authentic narrative and strike a poignant - rather than overly dramatic - tone.

This story starts where many refugee stories end: the moment they arrive in a new place. From that point, framed by the slow passing of time, the film is observational and gently paced with a prominent score that helps frame the visceral sense of uncertainty that flows from one day to the next. As their lives unfold, we witness their adaptation to Ireland and the shifting perspectives of adults and children when it comes to their relationship with home and where they perceive it to be. News media serves as an incidental character, flitting in and out of their lives; either pulling them back to memories of Ukraine or framing their existence in Ireland. The war remains a silent presence, lending gravity without overtaking their personal journeys. Which are ultimately shown to be about finding a way up a metaphorical (and literal) mountain.

The experience I’m most trying to communicate with Safe Unsound is that of resilience. The feeling of agency when the chips are down. While this film has hardship it’s about hope, tenderness, and how important human connection is in life’s most serious moments. At its heart, this film celebrates the human capacity to adapt, find kindness, and hold onto love.