The ten-minute film Neighbours explores “life alongside war, memory, responsibility and the choices that everyone has to make sooner or later”.
In a comment to Detector Media, the director explained that he created Neighbours using footage left over from his work on the documentary Forgive Me, Mum, about Hennadiy Afanasyev, a Crimean native, former political prisoner and Ukrainian soldier who was killed on the front line in 2022.
“Whilst working on the film Forgive Me, Mum, I noticed what was happening in the military section of the cemetery. It is a story in which both those who have died and those who come to visit them become neighbours. It is a sketch of contemporary reality — the interactions between people: how they treat each other to coffee, chat about everyday life and discuss power cuts,” Lesnyy explained.
Following the screening in Berlin, the director hopes to present the film at Ukrainian film festivals as well, notably Molodist and the Wiz-Art Festival in Lviv.
At the same time, the director noted that he would be unable to attend the festivals in person due to a lack of financial and organisational resources. In his post, he called on Ukrainians living in Berlin to support the screening of Neighbours and attend the festival.
Lesnyy also announced that his feature-length documentary Forgive Me, Mum has been selected for the competition programme of the 13th International Documentary Film Festival of Ierapetra in Greece, which will take place from 1 to 21 August.
Following its world premiere, the short film Neighbours is set to be made publicly available on YouTube.