Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, Danish producer Monica Hellstrom and director Simon Lereng Wilmont made arrangements for the evacuation of the Ukrainian family that was the subject of their Oscar-shortlisted 2017 documentary, The Distant Barking of Dogs.
Hellstrom told Variety that she and Lereng Wilmont reached out to the assistant director and local production coordinator to help them evacuate Oleg Afanasyev and his grandmother Alexandra, from their village of Hnutove in Donetsk.
It is to be noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an incursion of troops into the self-proclaimed independent territories of Donetsk and Luhansk on Monday, even before the launch of the large-scale invasion.
Oleg and Alexandra appeared in the documentary that follows the life of the then 10-year-old boy in the war-torn region of Donbas in Ukraine. It premiered at the 2017 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and won the IDFA Competition for First Appearance. It was also one of the 15 films shortlisted for the Oscars in the Documentary Feature category.
The subjects of the recent documentary, A House Made of Splinters, were also evacuated to a safer area following a bombing threat, the Variety report adds. Russia launched a three-pronged invasion of Ukraine from land, sea, and air, and bombed several cities, including the capital Kyiv.
A House Made of Splinters is also directed by Lereng Wilmont and produced by Hellstrom’s Final Cut for Real banner. “As the war in Eastern Ukraine takes a heavy toll on poor families living near the frontline, a small group of strong-willed social workers work tirelessly in a special kind of orphanage to create an almost magical safe space for kids to live in,” reads the film’s official synopsis.
Recommended
It earned Lereng Wilmont the award for best direction in the World Cinema Documentary category at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The director and producer have also joined forces to raise funds for children who have been evacuated from shelters in Eastern Ukraine, including those depicted in A House Made of Splinters, through the non-profit organisation Voices of Children. “We want to provide these children with food and clothing – everything they need,” said Hellstrom.
It is notable that Hellstrom’s Flee recently made history by becoming the first animated documentary to be nominated in the Best International Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature categories at the 94th edition of the Oscars.