Valeriia Kalchenko
Director / Screenwriter · Fiction Feature
My motivation for my project “Shtuka”
What is my motivation to work on “Shtuka” story – the story of Sonya, Kyiv schoolgirl who tries to preserve „Her World“ in the midst of war, especially after losing the “English woman”, her favorite teacher of English? I want to give myself a chance. A chance for rebirth. Because the truth is that the girl who in 2007 wrote a high-score essay based on the novel „War and Peace“ eventually grew up to be the “English woman” who perished over the first weeks of this war – perished from disappointment and loneliness… And I don’t know what to say here. „So it goes“ – Kurt Vonnegut said in my stead.
But there is Sonia, and she is there definitely not by chance. Using my „grey-haired“ experience and Sonya’s childish „rainbow“ vision, which does not fade away even in the darkness of the war, and based on our shared ability to fantasize we will try to prove that life is such a “thing” in which everything is possible. The WAR is possible. The DREAM is possible. And we are free to choose. To choose the DREAM, once and forever. And the last, but not the least! I consider that a “special” challenge of this war is the task for young generation to come out of this war not as a “lost generation”. History must never repeat itself in any way. People used to say, “Never Again”. Now it is time for an absolute and unshakable “NEVER”! Full stop!
