Amidst the Berlinale 2023, Kitchen Conversations had the unique opportunity to interview the Ukrainian film director and writer Alisa Kovalenko. One week before the world premiere of her newest documentary ‘We Will Not Fade Away’, Kovalenko shared insides of her emotional project which speaks about the power of dreams and fantasies even in the darkest of times.
The first steps of the film-making began already in 2018. Back then the director joined the famous Ukrainian explorer Valentin Sherbachov in order to recruit a group of Ukraine kids living in Donbas under Russia’s attack since 2014 and organise for them an unforgettable adventure to the Himalayas.
Similar to her last documentary ‘Home Games’, also this time Kovalenko points her camera towards youngsters who beam with hope and a particular kind of curiosity characteristic for young people at the verge of adulthood. As revealed in the interview, the director recognised herself in each and every one of the five protagonists of her film, since as a child she had always been a dreamer. Born and raised in Zaporizhzhia, surrounded by poverty and dullness, she had always hoped to get out of her small village and explore everything the world has to offer.
On February 23rd 2022, Kovalenko travelled from Kyiv to the region of Donbas to record the last bits of the atmospheric sounds for her film. While on the road, she received a call from her mother that Russian bombs were falling on Kyiv and the full-scale invasion had begun. Instead of working on the project, the director first helped evacuate her protagonists and later decided to join the volunteer military force and fight at the front line herself.
After four months of physically protecting Ukraine, Alisa Kovalenko returned home to Kyiv in order to finish her movie and – as advised by her colleagues from the film industry – “continued fighting at the cultural front line”. Her project ‘We Will Not Fade Away’ premiered on the 22nd of February 2023 at the Berlinale and has since been seen by thousands of people from all around the world.
Listen to the podcast here:
The interview with Alisa Kovalenko was made possible with the help of Kai Hermann/ NOISE Film&TV
Kitchen Conversations is an independent podcast platform produced by the artist Patrycja Rozwora (since May 2020). To support further development of the projects become a patron via patreon.com/kitchenconversations.
