Logline

This film delves into the realm of homelessness, yet it transcends despair. The distinction between them is just one letter, yet it encapsulates an entire universe—the universe of pain and love. In 2020, I embarked on a journey to document a photographer’s Oleksandr Chekmenyov project  on homelessness, intending to explore a world often overlooked. However, the events of 2022 reshaped our narrative. Today, homelessness is a stark reality affecting every Ukrainian. Our film unfolds as a haunting fairy tale of seeking home and self-discovery.

Synopsis

This journey began three years ago as an exploration alongside photographer Oleksandr Chekmenyov during his work with the homeless. Originally intended as the second film in a trilogy about societal outsiders, everything changed in 2022 when the homeless became intimately personal to me. What was once distant and abstract now touches every Ukrainian, akin to a relentless lottery of fate.

Our film draws parallels to Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Snow Queen.” Within it, our protagonists embody both Kai, burdened with a shard in his heart symbolizing pain and trauma, and Gerda, striving to heal him. It serves as a cinematic diary and a heartfelt confession shared by individuals ranging from children to the elderly, women and men, even our own film crew—each forced into displacement, at best emigrants and at worst, homeless.

This is a narrative of war—not depicting its horrors, but revealing its profound impact on the human spirit. It is simultaneously chilling and captivating, drawing listeners inescapably close. As we navigate the quest for home, we traverse various stages of loss—social, wartime, and environmental, as well as personal—from physical to sacred and intimate. Through this exploration, we seek to unravel the metaphorical essence of home: why it clings to us even in its absence, how it bolsters our resilience, and the depths of meaning hidden within.