Friends of Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) Strathbogie Shire will hold a Film Fundraiser for Ukraine at the St Dunstan’s Hall, Violet Town on Thursday 23 February at 6pm. TWO films will be screened: Homeward (Crimea, 2019) and The Earth is Blue as an Orange (Ukraine, 2020)
Homeward (Crimea, 2019)
Homeward makes it clear that displacement experienced by Crimean Tartars is painfully inter-generational.
Crimean Tatars Mustafa and his son Alim clash after collecting the body of elder son Nazim, a casualty of the Russo-Ukrainian War.[5] The family’s history with government displacement compel Mustafa on a pilgrimage to mourn and bury in Crimean Islamic tradition. The story starts from the morgue, then on a road trip in a Jeep Cherokee from Kyiv to the volatile Crimean Peninsula. After sleep deprivation and irritability the Jeep lands damaged in a ditch. Taking the vehicle to the closest auto shop, Alim meets the mechanic’s grand daughter, a young Ukrainian girl who convinces him to go to the river. It is during this time the traveling party loses their wallet to a group of local boys. Alim and Mustafa become closer as they learn how to defend their passage and regain their lost possessions. Mustafa’s illness is also revealed and worsens when the father and son arrive at Uncle Vasya’s home. The home is not far from the family’s original Crimean homeland, and Mustafa convinces Uncle Vasya to let him borrow a rowboat to complete the remaining segment of their passage.
The Earth is Blue as an Orange
To cope with the daily trauma of living in a war zone, Anna and her children are making a film together about their life in the most surreal surroundings.
Single mother Hanna and her four children live in the front-line war zone of Donbas, Ukraine. While the outside world is made up of bombings and chaos, the family is managing to keep their home as a safe haven, full of life and full of light. Every member of the family has a passion for cinema, motivating them to shoot a film inspired by their own life during a time of war. The creative process raises the question of what kind of power the magical world of cinema could have during times of disaster. How to picture war through fiction? For Hanna and the children, transforming trauma into a work of art is the ultimate way to stay human.
Event Details:
Program: Film Fundraiser for Ukraine
Date: Thursday, 23 February
Time: 6pm
Cost: $15
Location: St Dunstan’s Hall, High Street, Violet Town
Proceeds: to Ukranian Refugees
Hosts: Friends of Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) Strathbogie Shire
