The day the pirate went to gather mushroom

Saturday morning, Petro and I set on an arduous mission. We had to drive to a military zone about an hour from Lviv and convince the officers there to let us film the ruins of a Ukrainian church which had been used as a target by the Soviet military. Apparently, 58 villages that [...]

Ukrainian Gentlemen

We were passing by downtown Lviv yesterday night heading home when we decided to stop for a while and take a few still pictures of the city at night.
Wednesday evening, not many people are out on the streets. Some young kids are hanging out outside a cafe, a man is playing his guitar and [...]

All you need is love…

A random saturday in the streets of Lviv.

Olha Ilkyv

During our fundraisers and film presentations in the US, when asked about our inspiration making the film, there is one story we liked to tell.
One night, it was about 2am, Olia and I were sitting in a small dark editing room, physically and morally exhausted from working alone on a film that seemed to be [...]

Moshe in the basement

One day, we were sitting over coffee with some of Olia’s friend and a film director from Kyiv when we started talking about our film. The young film director remembered a joke he knew.
In a present day Ukrainian village, a man goes to the priest to confess his sins.
-Father, forgive me for I have [...]

I heart Lviv… except…

As I was trying to explain to our driver a few days ago, I found Lviv to be a wonderful city (douje harna Lviv). I absolutely love the old buildings, the paved streets, the moms in mini skirts walking their children in strollers, the endless cafes, the marshmallow clouds in clear blue skies, the cars [...]

Aharon in Borislav

I am learning more and more that in order to make a documentary, one must have nerves of steel, the mentality of a politician, an incredible ability to negotiate, and a lot of money (but let’s not even go there).
We got back from Poland on the 8th in the early morning, after driving overnight from [...]

The process of filmmaking

Major source of conflict: panorama (landscapes)! Olia and Petro can’t get enough of them, and we are constantly arguing if we should get another one or just go home pleaaaaaaseeeeeeeee…….

Very first day of filming in Poland in a Jewish cemetary.  For the record, she had to continue filming for 5 days in high heels.  She [...]

Polish anecdotes

Stashka (Florian’s sister)
After stopping in Przemysl, we were supposed to drive all the way to Wroclaw (completely opposite direction on the map) and interview Florian’s sister before going back to Warsaw. The trip would require filming during the day and then driving twice overnight. Can I just say that it’s not exactly our favorite thing [...]

The Polish Ukrainian border

So…. I had heard it was bad. That’s an understatement. We got to the border at 4am. We stayed in 4 lines so far, got two car inspections and a passport control. It’s now 7am. After presenting our documents, I looked ahead and noticed another line of cars. I naively ask: why another line?
My friends [...]