The Long February - The Elegy Of Bucha

Logline: February 2022, a month that seems to have no end. "The Long February" follows the residents of Bucha as they recount their lives under Russian occupation. We learn how they cope with their trauma today, each in their own way. Their collective testimonies create a symphony of diverse perspectives. One such story is about the choir of St. Andriy, who lost one of its voices to cold-blooded murder by Russian soldiers.

Description:
Bucha, a town right next to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, was occupied at the beginning of the Russian invasion of 2022. This film gives the inhabitants of Bucha space to share their personal experiences. Gives them a voice. Beginning with the experiences of an Ukrainian Police Officer, who stayed on duty in Bucha during the early occupation, the film dives further into what happened around the (now world famous) Station-Street, were a russian column was destroyed.

Inhabitants and the owner of a close cafe tell, what they experienced during the occupation. Their fear, hunger, starvation, the daily fight for basic needs, like getting fresh water, all while being shot at.

Furthermore, the film tells the story of the choir of Saint Andrij Church. That church that became world famous because of the mass grave in front of it. A member of the choir, Andriy S., was murdered in cold blood along with his parents, more relatives and neighbours by Russian occupiers. Their bodies piled up and burned. The director could identify a survivor of this family, who shares, how she has to cope with the trauma of losing her husband, brother and close relatives like Andriy S.

Especially for this film, the choir sang in remembrance of their friend Andriy, and provided many songs heard during the film.

All these stories intertwine in the end, and present how the inhabitants of Bucha are individually dealing with the trauma today. The filmmaker manages to get very close to the protagonists, who shared their thougths, formally unseen in a film on this topic.

This film was particularly important to the German-Ukrainian filmmaker Michael Stadnik, and the production was feeling especially close to the heart. Stadnik's relatives had to flee from Irpin, the neighbouring town of Bucha, and were in immediate danger. His relatives could provide the contact to many people, who became protagonists in this documentary. This production is one of the most emotionally difficult films of his work.
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The film postproduction was funded by the German State Fund Hessenfilm.
This is the first feature length cinema documentary by the filmmaker.