CRIMEA SICH
Documentary ・ 2013 ・ film is on post-production stage
Facebook: CrimeaSich
Team:
Maxim Dondyuk - Director, Director of photography, Producer, 1st camera
Nikolay Dondyuk - Film Editor, 2d camera
Irina Dondyuk - Executive Producer, Translator
Yuri Samson - Composer
I'm looking for a producer and team members. If you'd like to be a part of this documentary please write on this email
About the film:
Crimea Sich is a documentary about the patriotic and spiritual upbringing of future soldiers in the Crimean Peninsula and its consequences. Each August, children aged 7 to 16 attended military boot camp training there. Their instructors were Ukrainian and Russian Cossacks with real-life war experience. The training included target practice with real weapons, live ammunition, and instilling Christian values into the young Cossacks.
I discovered the camp in 2010, and for three years I kept coming back there with a camera to understand why at such tender age children needed to be taught how to deal with real weapons in time of peace, and what the camp was all about. In 2013 together with my brother, we shot the last days of the camp, a half year later Russia annexed Crimea, which led to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the war in Donbas. Cossacks, who previously considered themselves brotherly nations, split up for those who fight for maintaining their country’s boundaries and those who wanted to revive the former Russian empire.
The film asks the following questions:
- Why would adults, former military officers, want to teach combat to children? Do children, at such a young age, realize what they are being taught and why, and is this type of the imposed ideological stance healthy or even ethical for the young impressionable minds?
- I also noticed that religion plays a vital role in this training. But what was its true purpose?
- What thoughts and ideas could influence those who consider themselves brotherly nations to make them choose different sides of the conflict?