The goal of the Ukrainian series is to remind viewers around the world that “the war in Ukraine continues” and affects people like them, without falling into propaganda In her car, was filmed in the middle of the conflict and screened at MIPCOM in Cannes this week.
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The project, co-produced by Gaumont, was presented on the Croisette last year to illustrate the resilience of the Ukrainian television industry during the largest international audiovisual market.
A year later, six out of ten episodes had been filmed and around ten European broadcasters contributed to the financing, including France Télévisions.
We follow Lydia (Anastasia Karpenko), a psychologist who decides to transport refugees in her car after the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022. This impromptu therapy session is mixed with flashbacks that put the passengers’ previous lives into perspective.
Fate
“It was very important to me not to make a series about war, but about how war affects people’s fate and their views on the world,” Eugen Tunik, 31, told AFP.
“When the war began, it became clear to myself that any problems I might have had before February 24th were absolutely no longer of the same importance,” this author adds.
The idea came to him in spring 2022, inspired in particular by the work of volunteers during the conflict. While looking for a series festival where he could present the series, he was selected by the one in Berlin for which the Ukrainian government had given him permission.
There he met Andreas Bareiss, producer of Gaumont in Germany and member of the Berlin jury. “There were around a hundred projects in the competition, only three or four made it to the end. And there was this very charismatic boy with a very special project” that “the whole jury immediately fell in love with,” the producer told AFP.
The latter launched his network to raise funds and help the Ukrainian group Starlight Media.
Filming can begin in unknown locations in Kiev and the surrounding area from March 2023. “It was crucial for me to film in Ukraine, not because I’m crazy, but to show life as it was at the beginning of the war” and “because we can do it,” explains Eugen Tunik.
Without hate
“Even French actors came to Kiev for an episode,” he points out, pointing out that the sets are near bomb shelters and that “many teams have gone back to work.”
Not Manichean, the first three episodes AFP has seen do not overwhelm the Russians, whose language is spoken by certain characters, such as Lydia’s husband, who is originally from Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. And this despite the rejection that it now provokes among many Ukrainians.
“I didn’t want to make a propaganda series,” but rather “tell the truth,” says Eugen Tunik, who himself stopped speaking Russian after the invasion.
“It would have been so understandable if the series” had been full of hate, but “Eugen never fell into this trap,” welcomes Andreas Bareiss.
Isn’t it too early to tackle the topic in fiction? “It is a debate that we are having,” but the war is just a “decor” in the series, argues Eugen Tunik, who refused to deal with “the most terrible and always painful events that happened in Boutcha or Mariupol “, to explain.
“It’s the right time,” says Veronika Kovacova from Beta Film, responsible for international sales. “I wouldn’t say people tend to forget Ukraine, but the initial shock is over,” she adds, aiming for a February launch.
Another war-inspired series, Those Who Stayed, will be released on Netflix in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries on November 1st. It will also be broadcast on television in twelve countries, including France and Australia, according to Ukrainian group Film.UA.