A Film About Kyiv Rescue Workers Was Screened at Ukrainian House
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On the 27th of May, the documentary film To the Sound of Sirens was screened at Ukrainian House.
The film is about rescue workers and psychologists from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service who are the first to arrive at strike sites in Kyiv. Often, they come while the attack is still ongoing. They speak about what usually does not make it into the news: night shifts, work in the rubble, the deaths of colleagues, and conversations with people waiting for any news about their loved ones. They also talk about how, after all of this, they return home and try to live an ordinary life.
After the screening, we spoke with the film’s protagonists. In the film, SES psychologist Anna Yatsenko says it is simply impossible to fully shut yourself off and not feel other people’s pain: “I am human too. When a woman had two sons trapped under the rubble and one of them was pulled out alive, it was impossible to hold back, I smiled. And I cried with her just the same when the second one was recovered.”
Senior rescue worker Oleksandr Domarov recalled how he had dreamed of becoming a firefighter, and how difficult it is now, amid so much loss and pain. “But we save people. I have saved many, of course, not alone, it is teamwork. But what could be more important?” he shared during the conversation.
Now, as Kyiv is once again under constant shelling, all of this feels painfully close. The rescue workers reminded us once again that an air raid alert is not background noise and that people must respond to it, so that they have at least a little less work to do. Roman Koval from Truth Hounds also joined the discussion. They have just released a study showing that Russia deliberately and systematically targets Ukrainian rescue workers across the country.
The film was created by the Public Interest Journalism Lab and hromadske. It was authored by Anna Tsygyma and Kseniia Savoskina. The film was first screened in Strasbourg at PACE, and yesterday we watched it in Kyiv, together with the people it is about. Deep respect to the men and women for their trust and for what they do every time we hear the siren.
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