fiction series
After February 24, Saha's life fell apart. He lost his job and cheated on his wife twice in the last five days. The nation-wide tragedy leaves him, like many others, hanging by a thread. He feels lost and broken. But soon, his life changes dramatically. An enemy missile hits his apartment block. All his family - wife, daughter and son - die and he is taken to hospital in critical condition. Having recovered enough, he comes back to the ruins of his home and finds a strange string-shaped portal visible to him alone. He goes through the portal and comes out in his past, one week before the tragic events. But in his past, he is just a ghost. Nobody can see or hear him, except for a certain category of people, who call themselves "lost". These are peaceful people who lost their loved ones to war and got a chance to go back to the past and change everything. They are few. And Sasha is one of them. Sasha comes home and finds his wife and children alive.
But they, just like everyone else, can't see, hear of touch him. Soon, Sasha discovers a way to interact with his family through surrounding objects, like the main character in the film Ghost. The day of catastrophe is approaching, while Sasha is gradually building communication with every family member and stops his past self from making mistakes he had made. He manages to warn them about the danger and save them.
But as soon as they escape, he loses their track. Sasha doesn't know where they are anymore. They've just disappeared. Then, Sasha starts noticing something unusual. After he has saved his family, his own life starts to change. People start seeing and hearing him. He is literally becoming a part of the material world again, not just a ghost. His friends and family recognize him, but they've never heard about his family, which seems to never have existed.
Sasha's desperate search leads him to the conclusion that they could have been transported to the present and continue living their lives there.
He's looking for ways to come back to his present too and find out if he's guess is correct. But on the site of the missile hit, there's no portal. Bit by bit, Sasha gatheres some information.
A chain of incredible events and encounters bring him to one of the first of the "lost", a girl named Kaya. She tells him more about the portals and the laws by which these temporal anomalies function. A portal is opened by collective pain. As if the outburst of people's emotional energy was as strong as an exploding bomb. After every tragedy, people's pain reaches the concentration enough to open a portal on the site of the event. But only one person can find it. Thus, collective pain opens an opportunity for one person to heal. Kaya saved her own family and she's adjusting to life in her new reality. She suggests that Sasha should let it go and not try to steal the opportunity from someone else. He could live on, knowing that he did the right thing. But Sasha just can't give up. He is tortured by uncertainty.
After all, he finds another portal and comes back to his reality. At home, he finds his family. They are alive, the time never stopped for them. But they, just like before, can't see, hear or touch him. Watching his family gather at the dinner table, Sasha finds closure and lets them go.
PROJECT TEAM
KHACHATUR VASILIAN, scriptwriter
Born in 1991, in Yerevan, Armenia. At the age of 3, he and his parents moved to Ukraine, to the city of Mariupol. In 2015, he graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture with a degree in Film and Television Directing. During his studies at the Academy and after graduation, he made several short films that participated and won prizes at various national and international film festivals. Since 2017, lives and works in Kyiv. Khachatur writes screenplays for his projects. Sometimes, as a co-writer. Last year, the project of Khachatur's debut feature film My Young Prince became one of the winners of the Ukrainian State Film Agency competition and caught international attention at the pre-production stage. Recently, Khachatur completed work on the short film Human («Людина»), which was shot last summer in the temporarily occupied Kherson oblast. The film premiered at the Bengaluru International Film Festival, India's only Oscar-qualifying festival.
Filmography: My Young Prince ("Мій юний принц") (drama); co-writer, director;
2022, Human ("Людина"), short film, drama, fable; writer, director;
2018, Details ("Деталі"), experimental film, drama; writer, director;
2016, Made of Glass ("Скляний"), short film, drama; writer, director.
ZLATA YEFIMENKO, producer
Master of Film Studies (Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Karyi Theatre, Cinema and Television University) Founder of ZET PICTURES Film Company In 2021-2022, member of the Expert Council for Ukrainian State Film Agency. Started working in 2016 as assistant producer, and later, as a project coordinator and executive producer.
Filmography: 2018, Animals («Звірі»), short film by Roman Volosevysh; National Competition of the Molodist IFF 2019, Ukraine.
2018, Man with a Photo Camera («Людина з фотоапаратом»), short film by Vitaliy Kikot, Ukraine – National and International Student Competition at Molodist IFF 2019; winner at KinoKult FF 2019;
Sad Portraits («Сумні портрети»), short film by Vitaliy Kikot, with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, the winner of the Ukrainian Short Film Pitching by KISFF, Grand Prix KISFF 2021, Grand Prix and First place of Khmelnytskyi Film Festival 2021; winner of Ukraina! Film Festival.
2020 – created the cross-sectoral social project Equals about employment problems of people with disabilities in Ukraine; a short documentary film and 5 social videos were created as part of the project.
I Want to Go Home («Хочу додому»), short film by Maria Derhachova, with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency.
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