fiction feature film
End of February 2022, resort-type suburb of Kyiv, about to be occupied by russian troops. Olena, administrator of a nursing home for the elderly, attempts the evacuation of her 106 patients, most of them unable to walk, half with dementia. Having tried all options, Olena asks Andriy, whom she was in a toxic relationship with 30 years ago. Now he’s in a high position and has authority among the military as a war veteran. Quickly and clearly, Andriy starts the evacuating operation, finding solutions for nearly all issues. 24 ambulances are to deliver the patients to the train station in two runs, where they are awaited by two train cars attached to an evacuation train that will take the elderly to Slovakia, to a newly built home for 70 people that has everything but staff. Nonetheless Andriy’s stubbornness is alarming with his cynicism. The same effort could evacuate a thousand women and children. According to head doctor, only half of the patients will survive the trip. For the sake of the elderly, Andriy risks the lives of ambulances, the staff of the nursing home, the passengers of the evacuation train, and of course Olena, who is no longer pleased that she asked him for help. Their relationship deteriorates more and more. Everyone around them starts hating Andriy, even his subordinates whom he went through war with. His behavior seems rookie and completely unethical. But simultaneously with the intense events of the story with the evacuation, battles, shellings, and fights for seats among passengers who filled the neighboring cars to the brim – another story develops among the patients. The stress brings many out of dementia, everyone in their own way. The respnse to events is often irrational and surreal. Intellectual Maksym and aristocratic-looking Tetyana stand out among the patients, both about 90. They happen to meet in one ambulance, and later in one compartment. Tetyana gradually comes back to reality, but believes that she and Maksym are taking a train from Turkmenistan, they’re both 17 and the car is full of musically gifted teenagers. A professor of the Kyiv conservatoire gathered the best ones among the orphans who were evacuated, and rehearses with them during the journey, while even conducting concerts at two stops. Maksym and Tetyana are violinists. Through the story of their teenage love which sadly doesn’t end in anything, the viewer understands better these elderly people, rescued by Andriy so fanatically. Their fate, the depth of characters give these beautiful people value, even as they have left at most a few years to live. Andriy’s moral dilemma gains other meanings and brings back the psychological trauma that made their relationship with Olena impossible years ago. In 20 hours from the beginning of the evacuation, the train reaches the border. All matters with the documents (namely their absence) are resolved, the staff issue (among whom are males bound for military service) as well. Only 60 patients survived this nightmarish trip, so the availability of beds in the Slovak sanatorium is also clear. Patients who miraculously came out of their dementia, though not fully grasping the situation, or completely misunderstanding it, plunge into a collective delirium. They’re all united by desire to not die outside Ukraine. With this absurdist theater in the background, Andriy and Olena finally openly discuss their relationship, as if confessing. Spontaneously, as if catching up on all those years they’d been apart, they have sex, brutal and uncomfortable. After which Andriy quietly goes and disconnects the two cars with patients from the rest of the train that crosses the border. The cars remain in a snow-covered field, the patients calm down, the quiet comes.
PROJECT TEAM
IGOR SAVYCHENKO, scriptwriter
Igor Savychenko started his career in cinema as a scriptwriter, but shortly switched to producing films.
Over 16 years of his work he’s produced 10 narrative features, 5 documentary features, and over 30 short films.
7 narrative features had their premieres in A class festivals.
Overall, Igor’s films took part in A class festivals 24 times, and recieved 6 awards there. Some became top-grossing films in Ukrainian distribution.
In most of them, Igor took active part in developing the screenplays.
Among the best known are When the Trees Fall, The Forgotten, The Painted Bird, Brama, Voices from Chernobyl
SOLOMIYA ILNYTSKA, producer
EDUCATION:
2014 Modrzewski Academy of Krakow (Poland)
Specialization: Organization of film production
2014 Artistic school in Katowice (Poland)
Specialization: Sound editing
WORK EXPERIENCE:
2021-now Directory Films
2015-2020 New Theater, Ivano-Frankivsk
2014-2015 Radio Western Pole/Channel 402
2013-2014 Krakow Regional Film Fund/Krakow Film Commission
2011-2012 Krakow Festival Office
THEATER
Director
Production Krieger’s Balcony, playwright, director
Production WHO’S BAD?, based on Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, director
Musical Proposal based on A Chekhov’s play, director, songwriter
Production Crossroads, playwrights, director
Production The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde, director
1AD
Production Pillowman, Martin McDonagh, director Taras Beniuk
Production Apricot Heaven by Olena Isayeva, director Taras Beniuk
Production Games in the Backyard by Edna Mazya, director Taras Beniuk
Production Dog by Valentyn Krasnohovor, director Taras Beniuk
Production Some Girl, Neill LaBute, director Taras Beniuk
FILM
2022 THE GLASS HOUSE, feature film by Taras Dron, production manager
2022 DADDY, feature film