On 30 June, the Museum hosted a pre-premiere screening of the documentary “People of the Freedom Colour”. The film contains real stories of Ukrainians who, despite all the difficulties of the occupation, resist the russian invaders.
The documentary was created by the creative team of the NGO “Tuteshni” with the assistance of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Lina Kushch, a moderator of the event, and a journalist, noted the symbolism of the venue – the War Museum preserves the memory of the struggle of Ukrainians against totalitarian regimes and now it is a space for telling the stories of contemporary heroes of this struggle. Yuriy Horpynych, a Deputy Director General of the War Museum, noted the importance of bringing voices from the occupied territories to the general public. Anna Sliusarenko, the film’s producer and screenwriter, spoke about the main challenges of preparing documentary material about resistance and the lives of people who are or have been under occupation.
The film covers a huge collection of personal stories of resistance to the russian occupation. In addition to the well-known figures of Bohdan Ziza and Serhiy Zakharov, a viewer learned about the story of Linea Umerova, who refused from russian passport when she was still a schoolgirl and was eventually imprisoned for “espionage” because of her lack of it. The film showed numerous photos of the “yellow ribbon” action, a symbol of the resistance movement in occupied cities and villages that helps Ukrainians to be sure that they are not alone, to keep faith in the Armed Forces and liberation.
The screening was followed by a public discussion, which was attended by Tamila Tasheva, a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament; Oleksandr Sushko, an Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation; Alyona Lunova, an Advocacy Director of the “ZMINA” Human Rights Centre; Olha Altunina, a representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for the Rights of Citizens Affected by the Armed Aggression against Ukraine; Lyudmyla Huseynova, the film’s protagonist, human rights activist, and head of the NGO “Come on, Sisters!” and the previously mentioned Linea Umerova. The moderator was Lina Kushch.
The museum expresses its sincere gratitude to everyone involved in the creation of this film. The voice of Ukrainians living in the temporarily occupied territories must be heard loudly!
