For me, cinema is a way of exploring the world. I’ve always been fascinated by and drawn to the south of Ukraine, which is not so well-described in literature or film; it’s a sort of no man’s land between Crimea and mainland Ukraine.
I grew up there. I grew up in a family of journalists in the '90s. The reality was quite grotesque and I grew up with it, witnessing how news could be created, invented. I always wanted to make a film about this news cycle in the Ukrainian provinces.
REDAKTSIYA is a metaphor, full of modern myths and obscurities, but it also shows real things that happened to real people. The people who made it and acted in it have a connection to the place, and the past of southern Ukraine. They were all affected by the chaos before the war.
Many of the places we filmed no longer exist. They were destroyed, flooded, or burned down. The fates of many people in the film are unknown. Some left the country with their families; some turned out to be collaborators and fled to Russia. But most chose to stay and resist the invaders.
Roman Bondarchuk
