Mykola Zasieiev
Director/ Screenwriter · Fiction Feature
My motivation for my project “Dawn Chorus“
“Dawn Chorus“ is a story about the consequences of great war and how an individual can find him/herself again in the ruins of the past and start living here and now. We began developing the project six months before the full-scale invasion, before Russian missiles started falling on our homes. Like our screenplay’s characters during the multi-year winter, we also found ourselves in one long winter day on February 24 that was already the reality for us. “Dawn Chorus“ depicts what we all fear now: the war we are on the brink of – World War III. Huge irreversible war, where refugees are not only Ukrainians, but also French, Germans, Japanese etc.
Our motivation is to create a warning from the world described in “Dawn Chorus“. On the other hand, it’s our future, in which we will all find ourselves, and like the characters of the script, we will look for memories, hope, mourn and life again. But not for the past, but for “now“.
How do you plan to use the scholarship?
The scholarship is needed to finish the third draft of the script. Also, the scholarship will be used to start collecting materials for the presentation to be used for pitches at various international co-production markets and funding platforms. For this, we need a designer, with whom we will develop the art concepts of the “Dawn Chorus“ universe: characters and their appearance, aesthetics of the surrounding world, and artifacts. The scholarship will be used for travel and accommodation costs for the project presentation in Europe, the U.S. and Canada (if not reimbursed by the hosting festivals and markets).
