Experiencing Interruptions?

The view from the window

Ruslana is a Ukrainian teenager in anticipation of a desirable and unattainable maturity. She wears baggy shirts, ripped jeans, a cap and a pair of her only sneakers. She doesn't like to join to the rules of the street, but likes to create them herself. She explores the outer world with contagious energy, the world where so many are interesting and unfamiliar, where there are so many dangers.

Thanks to the volunteer project "Yellow Bus", the profession of cameraman becomes Ruslana's great dream. However, the very reality of a town on in Eastern Ukraine seems to be against it. But she takes the camera and leaves. Her video diaries are an intimate portrait of a teenager. Together with Ruslana we are talking about relatives and profession, we invent new friends and suspicious games, open new cities and continue to dream. Having a selfie-camera during five years, Rusia turns from a little girl to an almost-formed person with her psychological trauma and creative impulses.

The conflict between human being and environment is one of the central themes of the film. School curriculum, friends' jokes, and parents' confusion have nothing to do with her vision of the future –both a demanded and independent person. Ruslana's room is the only place where she does not need to conceal feelings, where she can be weak or annoying. Where the window is the 'portal', the connection between Ruslana's external and inner world, her relationship with the present. With the artistic image of the window, we perceive her time and space.

The director of the film is a kind of Ruslana's alter-ego. The inability to realize herself in a small town and the controversial reality of the East of Ukraine –this are the challenges during her maturity.

  • Anna Korzh
    Director
  • SKYDIVEFILM PRODUCTION
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Вид з вікна
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes 18 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 28, 2019
  • Country of Origin:
    Ukraine
  • Language:
    Russian
  • Shooting Format:
    16:9
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Anna Korzh

Anna Korzh is a documentary filmmaker. She graduated from the Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television’s Department of Television with a Master's degree in 2016. As a director, Anna has already made five documentary films highlighting important but neglected social issues and participated in more than twenty international film festivals around the world. She is one of the curators of the documentary program at the Contemporary Ukrainian Cinema nonprofit and coordinates several film festivals in Ukraine. Anna attended the Interdoc masterclass at the Interaction 2016 summer school in Serbia. Since 2017, she has worked as a volunteer and organized social projects and film schools for teenagers from frontline zones in Eastern Ukraine. She recently participated in the American Film Showcase workshop at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles as part of her ongoing role as the director of DakhaBrakha: On the Road, a feature-length music documentary.

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Director Statement

We will watch Ruslana in her room for a long time, where secrets and children's experiences are hidden. We will live in the family, as close as possible, so they stop paying attention to the camera. Also, our heroine will shoot a movie about herself, in order to show her way of achieving her goals. She will record video diaries and tell us what worries her most.
Long-term observation method.
The main purpose of this film is to depict one story as an example for the whole picture of modern society, and children, who will become adults.
The idea of the film is guided by the desire to show the moment of a child's formation in a society of war. Their emotions, conflicts with the environment and the desire to realize their dreams - to learn what they want.
This project combines important questions with answers which many teenagers in the East of Ukraine are looking for. The film is about the integration and peaceful existence of a new generation in the East of Ukraine, how they overcome stressful, military situations in their lives, how they experience and overcome anger in themselves, while preserving the supreme task of life - to create peace. And one day, a kid will look at the window without any fear and go to meet his or her future!