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Ten Days

After enduring ten horrific days in the basement of their Kiev home during the early days of Russia's attack on Ukraine, Anastasia, her mother, and her daughter set out on a long, harrowing trip to safety in the United States.

  • Yerzat Meirambek
    Director
  • Yerzat Meirambek
    Producer
  • Udi Zaken
    Producer
  • Anastasia Chuba
    Key Cast
  • Olga Chuba
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Student
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 20, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Russian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - New York Film Academy
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Yerzat Meirambek

Yerzat was educated in Beijing, China where he studied TV directing. He later immigrated to Kazakhstan and where he began work at the national TV channel,
QAZAQSTAN. He served as a TV director
there for seven years, working on a variety of projects including TV documentaries, reality shows and live broadcasts. Now he is documentary filmmaker lives in Los Angeles. His previous short documentary Ten Days is currently making the film festival circuit.

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Director Statement

On February 24th, 2022, Russia invades Ukraine, killing a large number
of civilians. Trying to survive the relentless air strikes, the remaining
citizens of Kiev hid in their basements.
Anastasia, a 29 year old mother of a four year-old girl, was one of them.
She and her family hid in the basement for the first 10 days of the war.
It was a very traumatizing time for them. Explosions were felt and heard
night and day and no one knew what would happen. Eventually,
Anastasia had to make a heart-wrenching decision. Does she stay in her
beloved homeland and risk her daughter’s life, or does she escape and
take her daughter to a place of safety?
Many other families were forced to make similar decisions, to abandon
their homeland and to flee for their lives. During my interviews with
Anastasia and her 49 year-old mother, I was so incredibly touched by their
deep love for each other and for their homeland. My heart went out to them,
and I decided to document their horrific story.
Although I was unable to travel to Ukraine, I utilized news footage, articles,
and personal photos and videos from Anastasia, to illustrate the chaos of the war.
My film shows how peaceful lives and a beautiful land can so quickly be scarred
by the horrors of war.