10:00:00:00 Clarity Productions presents
A film by Shira Pinson
Ruslana: How old am I? … I don’t know
10:00:30:00
Vasya: This is not a life to live on the streets like this, I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.
Chippolino: We beg: “Can you spare some change?” When we have enough money, we go to the shop and buy glue.
10:01:00:00
Sanya: The police never try to help us. If they really cared about us they wouldn’t keep arresting us.
10:01:30:00 Ruslan: Why do I drink vodka? I simply can’t look at this life
we are living sober.
Tanya: The winter is coming to the streets, so in order not to freeze we have to rent something. We have to live somehow.
10:02:00:00 Vitalik: A friend is … if I killed someone, he would tell the
police that he did it. That’s a friend.
Flowers Don’t Grow Here
10:02:30:00
10:03:00:00
10:03:30:00 Sanya: Someone took my mattress. I thought: “What the hell”
and I took their blanket. I left them alone over there and stayed here.
Ruslana: It was such a mess here yesterday.
Byk: We were nearly fighting… all because of some money.
Sanya: Go to your place!
10:04:00:00 Ruslana: We made Apa give us ($40). He stole over ($100) from
someone. Uncle Igor was looking for him yesterday. We didn’t know about that.
Sanya: The vodka was so strong yesterday. I didn’t even want to drink it.
Ruslana: Then Apa came and the guys started picking on him to buy vodka and food
10:04:30:00 Byk told him to buy a cake for the girls.
Sanya: Vasya poured so much I thought I was going to throw up all over Ruslana
Byk
(off camera): He bought so much meatloaf, glue, sausages. Everyone had a packet of cigarettes, but they’re all gone now.
Chippolino: Me and Byk smoked them all.
Byk
(off camera): I am so dirty…I won’t go anywhere.
10:05:00:00
Ruslana: And we’re not dirty?
10:05:30:00 Le’voberejna (Lev’ka) Kiev
Sanya: If I go on living like this on the streets I will have no family.
10:06:00:00 People will look at me and say: “You are a bum. Who needs you? Don’t work, don’t study, don’t know how to do anything.”
10:06:30:00 Ruslan: When I met Tanya I was 25 years old. I wanted to have
my own family. A wife and children. I wanted to care about someone. I was absolutely flooded with that feeling. At that time Tanya told me that she had a child. I was OK with it, I love children.
10:07:00:00 My friends were saying to me: “What are you doing with this girl? She is a prostitute. She is not for you. Go and find somebody else.” But I looked into her soul. It was not her fault that she had to sell herself. I understood her and she understood me. This brought us closer together.
10:07:30:00
10:08:00:00
Chippolino: When mother was alive everything was alright. We had a farm with horses and everything. But after my mother died, father started drinking, beating us up, and selling everything. So we ran away from home and now we live here.
Ruslana: Then I was taken by the police and sent to the shelter.
10:08:30:00 Chippolino thought that they sent me home, so he went to look for me. When he found I wasn’t at home, he brought Vasya back to Kiev as well. They said: “Do you want to see your sister? Then let’s go.”
Vasya: I had never taken the train before, only just to the local village and back again. I asked (Chippolino): Is it far to Kiev?” He replied: “Two or three stops”. He fooled me. I didn’t know how far it was. We sat on the train and they put sleeping pills in my tea.
10:09:00:00
I fell asleep and woke up, much later, in Kiev.
Vitalik: I was hanging around in Lev’ka sniffing. I felt lonely at home. At first, I only allowed a few people to stay. Then someone would ask to bring a friend, and then another… I felt sorry for them. They live under the bridge. You know how it is under the bridge. It’s cold there.
10:09:30:00
Sanya: At the moment I eat whatever I can get. That’s how I live. I practically don’t go to my friend (Vitalik’s) anymore. I was staying at his for some time, but I rarely see him now.
10:10:00:00 He just sits at home, sniffing glue all the time.
Chippolino: I wasn’t sniffing glue at first.
10:10:30:00 But when we started living here with the guys, they taught me how to sniff.
Ruslana: I didn’t know what it was to sniff glue. I wasn’t swearing, I didn’t know anything like this. When Chippolino, my brother, started sniffing I would run away from him shouting: “You’ll kill me with this glue.” But he said: “Don’t be afraid. Try it.” And so I tried it, and started sniffing.
Chippolino: So I carried on sniffing and still sniff now.
10:11:00:00 I tried to stop but I can’t.
Vitalik: I am a fool… I can’t make sense of anything in my life. I can’t figure it out. It’s because I’m sniffing glue all the time. Everyday… Everyday…Everyday.
10:11:30:00
Tanya: My friend Vitia came with me. We went to Lesnaya, where we decided to put up a tent in the woods. That’s how we lived for three months. At the time I was pregnant. I felt a pain in my stomach, but I just thought that I had alcohol poisoning.
10:12:00:00 So I went back to the place where we were living in the tent. In the morning, I gave birth to my eldest son, Bogdan. I had a lot of clothes – t-shirts and jackets – so I wrapped him in them and then I fell asleep beside him.
10:12:30:00 As Bogdan was so small they sent us to the children’s hospital so that we could have a proper check up. I wanted to leave for a couple of hours to go and earn some money but the hospital staff would not let me go. When no-one was around, I decided to go to the high road to turn a couple of tricks.
10:13:00:00 So I can buy some nappies. So I ran away and didn’t go back.
Ruslan: Yesterday we met Bogdan’s biological father. He had just been released from prison. He was sent to prison for stealing. Maybe I should go to him and say:
10:13:30:00 “Thank you for giving me such a wonderful son.” Because (Bogdan) is my son. It doesn’t matter that I am not his biological father. He is my son and if someone tried to take him away from me
10:14:00:00 I would tear that person to pieces. I have my own biological son, David, but to me there is no difference between Bogdan and David. I love them the same.
Vasya
Chippolino
(singing,
off camera): Mother you are sleeping,
10:14:30:00 but they are dressing you up in this black,
very black, unusual costume,
And strangers are reading a prayer,
And candles keep burning and burning.
Father, tell me: “Why is mother silent?”
10:15:00:00 “Oh sonny, oh sonny, please stop it please stop…”
“all mothers alive – yours just died.”
10:15:30:00
10:16:00:00 Vasya: They are called the Special Police Force. They are the
ones who beat the worst. They put masks on…. ‘mask show’ we call it. They don’t ask any questions, they just beat immediately. Whoever is in their way gets the worst beating. Whoever is able to hide is lucky.
10:16:30:00 Sanya: We were sleeping in the sewer pipeline when they
came. They figured out that we were living there and took us outside. It was the winter and it was so cold. They lined us up and made us stand there. One policeman started beating up Ruslana.
10:17:00:00 Her brothers, Vasya and Chippolino asked: “Why are you punching her?” The policeman was a total psycho. He said: “Shut your mouth, you pig!” Vasya replied: “He’s not a pig, he’s a human.”
Vasya: I gabbed a metal pole from a broken bed and ran to the windows and started breaking the bars. I got out into the street – ‘Freedom!’
10:17:30:00 There were three policemen standing under the stairwell, but I didn’t see them. I was whistling, they came up behind me, cuffed me and threw me back into the shelter.
Sanya: They stopped the police car right in front of me, handcuffed me and drove me away. Once in the car, I started shouting. The driver said: “Shut up, or I’ll shoot you in the head.”
Vasya: They brought me to the Director of the shelter.
10:18:00:00 The fat guy – Tanya knows him. He’s a very bad guy. He loves to beat up children. The Director took the policeman’s baton – you know, the striped one – and says: “Do you want me to break your skull?” And I replied: “Yeah, do it.” The Director was a little drunk and started to lose it. He grabs me by the ear and drags me into his office. I thought he was going to kill me.
10:18:30:00 Sanya: One even my mother was beaten up by the police. It
was because she came drunk to pick me up from the police station. As I was standing there, waiting for my mother, I heard screams from the office. I ran into the office and started swearing at the policemen. They cuffed my mother and took her away to a cell.
10:19:00:00 After that incident, I stupidly thought that I could blow up the police station into small pieces. Half of it, or even all of it, would be gone. So that only a hole in the ground is left… for garbage. This has been my dream for a very long time.
10:19:30:00
Ruslana: You open it here. You see? You unscrew the top…
10:20:00:00
Group
(Vitalik): This is my glue!
Ruslana: Watch. It is their glue but we’ll give it to them after. Look – do you see the seal is broken?
Group: Tell them…
Ruslana: Get off me!
10:20:30:00 You pour it in… then pass it to the next person. And they take care of their own. Then you take it like this and sniff. Here we go!
10:21:00:00 When you sniff glue you don’t want to eat anything.
Sanya: They buy glue and go to Vitalik’s. They go there just to sleep, watch TV and sometimes take a shower. Now I don’t visit Vitalik’s any more,
10:21:30:00 because the flat has turned into a drug house.
Tanya: We kept asking them to stop sniffing glue. We begged them to do it in the bathroom or somewhere outside, but not in the main room because in there the children were inhaling it. I worried that it would damage their lungs, kidneys… the whole of their body.
10:22:00:00 Vitalik: I understand kids – going around making a mess. I can
deal with that, but you can’t put all the blame on the kids.
Tanya: Once, in the middle of the night, one of the girls told us: “If you don’t want your children to be around this smell then why don’t you all just pack up and leave?”
Chippolino: We did not throw them out of here. They decided to go.
Vitalik: They were welcome to live here peacefully. So live and let live!
10:22:30:00 They were even given this bed.
Chippolino: They had this bed. But when they brought in food, they would cook for themselves and would never give any to us.
Tanya: What right did she have to tell us to leave? She did not own the flat – we were all living together. We were meant to make compromises so that everyone lived in peace.
10:23:00:00
Security Guard
(off camera): How many times do I have to say it? Go away! I don’t have to listen to you. Go away. You can’t stay here anymore. People are buying food here and you are sniffing glue. Go away!
Sanya: No, listen – have you seen me sniffing glue?
Security Guard: I don’t have to listen, get out of here! What don’t you
understand?
Sanya: Who are you to tell me to get out of here? Do you think you are my father or something?
10:23:30:00 Security Guard: If I had a son like you I would kill him.
Sanya: Oh… you would kill me?
Security Guard: Get out of here!
Sanya: I won’t go anywhere.
Security Guard: What don’t you understand?
Sanya: My father came into the bathroom with an axe. He had decided to kill me in the bath.
10:24:00:00 Mother ran in with a hammer and said: “Either you get away from him, or I’ll hit you on the head with this hammer.” Father simply replied: “I’ll chop you with this axe.” I stood up. Mother threw the hammer at fathers leg and knocked the axe out of his hand.
10:24:30:00 The axe landed in between my legs.
Then my mother got a lover. My mother used to swear at him badly when she was drunk. Later, he beat her so badly that she was hospitalised.
10:25:00:00 She was in hospital for about half a year. She never wrote from the hospital. But when she felt that she was dying she confessed to me the truth about her lover beating her up. It was all because she swore at him when she was drunk in his flat.
10:25:30:00 He punched her on the face and she fell to the ground. He was kicking her so hard that she was bouncing off the floor because of the blows. Her internal organs were very badly damaged. She said: “It just happened like that…if I hadn’t been drunk, and hadn’t sworn at him, it would never have happened.”
10:26:00:00 I was visiting her regularly, bringing her mostly stolen money. What would it look like if I were to visit my mother empty handed? The neighbours were trying to shield me from the truth but mother died.
Ruslana
(singing,
off camera): Don’t wait… I won’t return home tonight,
10:26:30:00 Mother, I’ve left home for good,
Father will be drunk from early morning,
I was nothing but a bad dream for him,
I’m a drifter. A vagrant wanderer,
Lonely as the wind itself,
I’m a drifter but I am my own master,
10:27:00:00 and I won’t sell my freedom for the world.
I never felt a tender hand from childhood,
I never saw my father sober,
No-one read a bedtime story,
Only beatings for me and mother,
I’m a drifter. A vagrant wanderer.
Lonely as the wind itself,
10:27:30:00 I’m a drifter but I am my own master,
and I won’t sell my freedom for the world.
Vitalik: I want to do things but first I would have to throw everybody out and get my brain working. I can’t throw them out, I feel sorry for them. What will they do? It’s cold on the streets.
10:28:00:00 And anyway, winter is coming…
Sanya: Last night I thought I would freeze to death if it was not for the dogs, Uksus and Zina. They kept me warm. I was shivering all night. It was even freezing in the cave…even thought they all crawled in and made an enormous pile.
Tanya: The winter is coming to the streets,
10:28:30:00 so in order not to freeze, we have to rent something. We have to live somehow.
Ruslan: We’ll rent a flat and get a month’s supply of food so that we have enough to eat. I will go to work and we will sort everything out. Start living a normal life. I’m fed up with all of this. To sleep like this under a bridge…
10:29:00:00 it makes me furious.
Sanya: Now I don’t drink much because I fear I will end up like my mother and father. I see Ruslan and Tanya walking around with the kids and I feel sorry for them.
10:29:30:00 When Ruslan is drunk he beats up the kids. You don’t teach them anything when you beat them up…when you’re drunk.
Ruslan: Why do I drink vodka? I simply can’t look at this life which we are living sober.
10:30:00:00 We’re on the street with the kids…She’s working as a prostitute…I’m a thief…I just can’t look at all this sober. That is why I drink.
Vitalik: Mother was starting to drink more vodka. And she lost it to alcohol… Everybody lost it to alcohol.
10:30:30:00 Ira: What are you talking about? Who lost it to alcohol? Do
you see an alcoholic in me?
Vitalik: So why do you hurt yourself then?
Ira: What is your problem? You are really weird today. I fell sick when Olia cut me. That’s how it started. Why are you blaming vodka? You put things together not knowing what is what.
Vitalik: Sometimes she drank.
10:31:00:00 Tanya: He starts drinking. Bit by bit, bit by bit. And then the
second day, it’s always a hangover. He says he’ll only drink a little. 50 gr and that’s it. But then he meets some friends and one of them will want a drink, but has no one to drink with. Eveyone who lives here at Lev’ka, when they want to drink they come looking for Ruslan.
One day we came to the river and Uncle Tolik was here, fishing. He had just got his pension.
10:31:30:00 (He said to Ruslan): “I want a drink. Have a drink with me.” - “OK, let’s drink” and they drank. Uncle Tolik was left with ($0.50) in his pocket out of his entire monthly pension. And then … he had a heart attack.
Vitalik: We bought an electricity counter. They sold it for money for drink. They broke tha bath tub, smashed all the windows…
Ira: When I bought the elevtricity counter you told me that we didn’t need it!
Vitalik: We don’t need it…? Everybody needs an electricity counter!
Ira: I don’t know why it wasn’t needed…
10:32:00:00 Tanya: It seems like he’s starting to have ‘white fever’ when he
drinks. He was walking ahead of me with Bogdan. I was carrying David. All of a sudden, Ruslan turned around and slapped me with the back of his hand. I start falling and I can’t catch David. He slips out of my hands. David hits his head on the concrete and starts crying.
10:32:30:00 I pick him up and try to calm him down. Ruslan walks over and throws Bogdan at me. He just came over and threw him at me! My hands were busy with David and so I couldn’t catch Bogdan. He falls as well and starts crying. I can hear the cab drivers shouting: “Call the police! Call the police!”, “He’s beating her up! He’s taking it out on the kids!”
10:33:00:00 Vitalik: I don’t have anything normal to say about you. What
can I say that is normal about you? There is nothing good that I could say about her.
Other
(Off camera): But regardless she is your mother…
Vitalik: What good can I say? What good did she do in the last ten years. Nothing. Just drank vodka…and slept around.
10:33:30:00
Ruslan: Most of the guys from Lev’ka know that she’s working on the high road. So how can I look them in the eye? They look at me knowing that my wife is working as a prostitute. I’m boiling inside.
10:34:00:00 When we were landing in Sarajevo we got ambushed. One guy ran out and a bullet found him… he was killed. They were bringing us out into a hail of gunfire.
10:34:30:00 One officer, who was teaching us ‘life lessons’, loaded his gun and told us: “Either you go out … or I’ll shoot you myself”. My friend Sasha jumped out of the wrong side of the armoured car. He jumped out on the side which was under fire.
10:35:00:00 He was shot with a big calibre bullet. After Sasha died, I killed for the first time. I was the smallest one in our unit… I was the least noticeable.
10:35:30:00 I killed a person simply with a knife. Their posts were already set and so we had to take out the guard. As I was the smallest, I had to go. I had to put a knife into his throat.
10:36:00:00
When I ignore it and don’t think about it, it’s ok.
10:36:30:00 But when I start to remember… sometimes it happens at night. Tanya keeps asking: “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” I always answer that I have a pain in my stomach but really I am dreaming about Sasha’s death.
10:37:00:00
I have a wish to take that knife and stick it into my throat and tear it but I have to feed the kids. If it were not for the kids I would have done it a long time ago.
10:37:30:00 Vitalik: (Uncle) Sergey first started living here after he lost his
flat. He had a quarrel with his wife and they started living separately. It was his son’s birthday…He had some drinks and was driving his car. He smashed into another car. He wasn’t able to pay his debts and so he sold the flat.
10:38:00:00
Ruslana: Uncle (Sergey) was drunk. He asked us to give him some money. Vitalik asked: “Is it to buy more vodka? If so, we won’t give you any more food.” Sergey said: “If you won’t, I’ll throw you all out of here!” He went into the other room… took a plate full of porridge and threw it straight at (Vitalik’s) face.
10:38:30:00 The plate smashed and cut open his eye and his lip. Vitalik asked Vasya to kill Sergey…to step in for him. I said: “Vasya, don’t touch him. He’ll call the police. Get dressed first…just ignore him.”
We got dressed and gathered our stuff. Uncle then became very abusive towards everyone.
10:39:00:00 Vasya could not take it any longer…and started beating Sergey. Uncle wet himself. He wanted to call the police but Vasya stopped him. Uncle pleaded: “Vasya don’t touch me.”
Vasya did not want to stop, but I told him that was enough. And then we left. Vitalik said: “I’m leaving home forever. I’ll come and live with you.”
10:39:30:00 He came to Lev’ka for a while but eventually went back home. He asked us to go back too, but we said “No”.
Vasya: I feel sorry for him. He’s not eating anything.
10:40:00:00 I feel bad about what happened, but what he did wasn’t right. He took a plate and broke it on Vitalik’s face. Now he just sits there…He can’t get up. I just don’t realise the power of my blows, It’s not good. I won’t be doing that any more…seriously.
10:40:30:00 God forbid, I could have killed him.
Now I’m feeling sorry for myself, I’m feeling really bad. I was ashamed to go and ask for his forgiveness. After I have beaten him up so badly…to then go and ask for his forgiveness…But I did it anyway, and he said that everything was ok. “I’ll forgive you.”
10:41:00:00 He’s a good guy. I’m a fool. I was wrong to do it. They should have solved the problem between themselves and then maybe it wouldn’t have happened.
Vika: Vitalik is coming.
Vitalik: Then I called Aunt Natasha, (Sergey’s) wife. That’s it…The morgue car came, police. The ambulance first…
10:41:30:00 and then the police and then the morgue car.
Group
(Off camera): Was he taken away?
Vitalik: Who…Sergey? Yes, of course. What…you think they will leave him to lie in the bath?
Group: And were was Mother?
Vitalik: Mother was at home. Mother left home as well.
Group: No… Yes, yes. She went down into the street.
10:42:00:00 She was crying, afraid to go back up into the flat.
Vasya: She is screwed up in the head but she does understand.
Group: She said: “Where is Vitalik?”, “Don’t do anything without Vitalik.”, “Vitalik will come soon.”, “Go get Vitalik.”
Vasya: You know how it happened? We came to the flat and the girls were asleep.
10:42:30:00 We went into the kitchen and heard water running. Kolya went into the bathroom and saw him lying there… looking blue. All of us went running into the kitchen screaming, crying. Byelka says: “Wait. We will run and get Vitalik.”
Ruslana: We were sleeping. They woke us up.
Vasya: His head was under the water.
10:43:00:00 Kolia took his head out of the water and put his hand on the edge of the bath so that he didn’t go under water. He moved Sergey’s hand out of the water but it slid back itself.
Chippolino
and Vasya: Listen, you remember, when I was taking a shower, he told Yoska to get out of there.
10:43:30:00 (Sergey) was saying before: “Guys, I have a headache. Let me have a bath.” Everything was normal. I couldn’t imagine that he would die.
Vitalik: What difference does it make? This is the end.
Ira: First of all, I’m feeling bad. How do I feel…? How do I feel…?
10:44:00:00
I feel…
Vitalik: He died because he was beaten up.
Vasya: Experts will say why he died.
10:44:30:00 He was alive. Walking, drinking…I don’t know what happened. When I made borsch, he was eating it.
Vitalik: The conclusion of the doctor is that those broken ribs were rubbing the lungs
10:45:00:00 …causing…I don’t remember how it’s called… internal bleeding. And he felt really bad and eventually his heart stopped. I put him closer to death. That’s what a friend of his told me.
Vasya: We were scared. There were no adults around.
10:45:30:00 It was the first time that we had seen a drowned body…the first time in my life.
Vitalik: I am guilty because I asked (Vasya) to beat up Sergey. He’s not guilty. I don’t think that he’s guilty. But even with everything that came before this
10:46:00:00 I no longer consider him my friend. He is not my friend. I don’t consider anyone in Lev’ka to be my friend.
Vasya: I can’t imagine how Vitalik will live through all of this. His uncle was taking care of his sick mother. I don’t know what he’ll do now.
10:46:30:00 They can take away the flat from him.
Sanya: Yes they can.
Vasya: He is not adult yet. Uncle took his passport, all of their documents, and hid them all.
Vitalik: I can’t even go into the bathroom myself.
10:47:00:00 There’s no light in there. Its dark. I’m afraid. That’s it. I can’t speak anymore.
10:47:30:00 Less than two weeks after Sergey’s death, Vitalik threw himself out of the apartment window…he survived.
The Ukraine, Europe’s second largest country, has been struggling for social and economic stability since independence from the U.S.S.R in 1991.
As a result, there are an estimated 1,000,000 children and teenagers currently living homeless on Ukraine’s streets…
10:48:00:00 Sanya: Life has changed. I don’t feel like I did in my childhood
– I feel myself becoming a man. There are times when I feel like an old man.
10:48:30:00 Tanya: We would live well if we could accomplish our plans.
And if Ruslan stopped drinking it would be absolutely wonderful.
Ruslan: They are picking people for Iraq. It is because of the children that I won’t go,
10:49:00:00 so in the future they won’t say that their father abandoned them.
Vasya: We bought two bottles and drank them to try and calm ourselves. We drank to conquer our fear. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.
Vitalik: The kids from around here…we can pull ourselves out somehow.
10:49:30:00 But the kids from other towns, they can’t…they are lost cases. I don’t know what will happen to them.
Ruslana: Yushchenko will make everything normal here in Ukraine. There will be no thieves… They will all be jailed. There will be no poor people, begging like us…they will all have a home. Everything will be better.
10:50:00:00 It won’t be like it is now under Kuchma. He allows glue, vodka, theft. Kuchma out…and Ruslana in!
Written and Directed by
Shira Pinson
Produced by
Sarah Tierney
Camera
Shira Pinson and Madelaine Leeson
10:50:30:00
Editor
Nigel Galt
Original Composition by
James Burrell
Production Manage / Translator
Gediminas Adomaitis
On-line Editor
Steve Gibbs
Dubbing Mixer
David Woolley
Matt Baird
Additional Footage
Andrey Svetilnikov
Susanne Deitz
Production Facilities – Ukraine
Pack Shot Boys Film
Post Production Facilities – UK
Edit Video Ltd
Tambuti Films Ltd
10:51:00:00
Post Production Translation
Nijole Bagdziute
Elena Bylinkina
Sasha Kamenetski
Natalia Rolleston
Louisa Smith
Olga Tsarich
Anna Weddell
Special Thanks:
Tanya, Ruslan, Bogdan and David, Sanya, Vasya, Chippolio, Ruslana, Vitalik, Ira and Uncle Sergey
And all their friends at Lev’ka
10:51:30:00 Special Thanks:
Renato Arvedi
Paul Augarde
Mary Brinkley
The Donsky Family
Arie Farnam
Kelsey Hoppe
Victor Karpenko
Arnold Kremenchutsky
James Manuel
Vyacheslav Nelep
Svetlana Nikitova
Fabian Peters
Hari Sankaran
Carol Sinclair
Andrey Svetilnikov
Misha Tkachuk
Colin Tucker
Patricia Wright
and especially Cecile Trijessar.
Special Thanks:
Hope and Homes for Children – UK and Ukraine
Internews – Ukraine
New Beginnings
The One World Broadcasting Trust
The Research Centre for Television and Interactivity
UNICEF – Ukraine
Special Thanks:
Creative Video Associates
Funky Media
GB Supplies
Hammerhead
TV Metro
Broadcast Monjon
Moody Monster Ltd
Remote Films
World Wide Tape
and especially Edit Video Ltd
Clarity Productions Ltd
10:52:00:00
A film by Shira Pinson
Ruslana: How old am I? … I don’t know
10:00:30:00
Vasya: This is not a life to live on the streets like this, I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.
Chippolino: We beg: “Can you spare some change?” When we have enough money, we go to the shop and buy glue.
10:01:00:00
Sanya: The police never try to help us. If they really cared about us they wouldn’t keep arresting us.
10:01:30:00 Ruslan: Why do I drink vodka? I simply can’t look at this life
we are living sober.
Tanya: The winter is coming to the streets, so in order not to freeze we have to rent something. We have to live somehow.
10:02:00:00 Vitalik: A friend is … if I killed someone, he would tell the
police that he did it. That’s a friend.
Flowers Don’t Grow Here
10:02:30:00
10:03:00:00
10:03:30:00 Sanya: Someone took my mattress. I thought: “What the hell”
and I took their blanket. I left them alone over there and stayed here.
Ruslana: It was such a mess here yesterday.
Byk: We were nearly fighting… all because of some money.
Sanya: Go to your place!
10:04:00:00 Ruslana: We made Apa give us ($40). He stole over ($100) from
someone. Uncle Igor was looking for him yesterday. We didn’t know about that.
Sanya: The vodka was so strong yesterday. I didn’t even want to drink it.
Ruslana: Then Apa came and the guys started picking on him to buy vodka and food
10:04:30:00 Byk told him to buy a cake for the girls.
Sanya: Vasya poured so much I thought I was going to throw up all over Ruslana
Byk
(off camera): He bought so much meatloaf, glue, sausages. Everyone had a packet of cigarettes, but they’re all gone now.
Chippolino: Me and Byk smoked them all.
Byk
(off camera): I am so dirty…I won’t go anywhere.
10:05:00:00
Ruslana: And we’re not dirty?
10:05:30:00 Le’voberejna (Lev’ka) Kiev
Sanya: If I go on living like this on the streets I will have no family.
10:06:00:00 People will look at me and say: “You are a bum. Who needs you? Don’t work, don’t study, don’t know how to do anything.”
10:06:30:00 Ruslan: When I met Tanya I was 25 years old. I wanted to have
my own family. A wife and children. I wanted to care about someone. I was absolutely flooded with that feeling. At that time Tanya told me that she had a child. I was OK with it, I love children.
10:07:00:00 My friends were saying to me: “What are you doing with this girl? She is a prostitute. She is not for you. Go and find somebody else.” But I looked into her soul. It was not her fault that she had to sell herself. I understood her and she understood me. This brought us closer together.
10:07:30:00
10:08:00:00
Chippolino: When mother was alive everything was alright. We had a farm with horses and everything. But after my mother died, father started drinking, beating us up, and selling everything. So we ran away from home and now we live here.
Ruslana: Then I was taken by the police and sent to the shelter.
10:08:30:00 Chippolino thought that they sent me home, so he went to look for me. When he found I wasn’t at home, he brought Vasya back to Kiev as well. They said: “Do you want to see your sister? Then let’s go.”
Vasya: I had never taken the train before, only just to the local village and back again. I asked (Chippolino): Is it far to Kiev?” He replied: “Two or three stops”. He fooled me. I didn’t know how far it was. We sat on the train and they put sleeping pills in my tea.
10:09:00:00
I fell asleep and woke up, much later, in Kiev.
Vitalik: I was hanging around in Lev’ka sniffing. I felt lonely at home. At first, I only allowed a few people to stay. Then someone would ask to bring a friend, and then another… I felt sorry for them. They live under the bridge. You know how it is under the bridge. It’s cold there.
10:09:30:00
Sanya: At the moment I eat whatever I can get. That’s how I live. I practically don’t go to my friend (Vitalik’s) anymore. I was staying at his for some time, but I rarely see him now.
10:10:00:00 He just sits at home, sniffing glue all the time.
Chippolino: I wasn’t sniffing glue at first.
10:10:30:00 But when we started living here with the guys, they taught me how to sniff.
Ruslana: I didn’t know what it was to sniff glue. I wasn’t swearing, I didn’t know anything like this. When Chippolino, my brother, started sniffing I would run away from him shouting: “You’ll kill me with this glue.” But he said: “Don’t be afraid. Try it.” And so I tried it, and started sniffing.
Chippolino: So I carried on sniffing and still sniff now.
10:11:00:00 I tried to stop but I can’t.
Vitalik: I am a fool… I can’t make sense of anything in my life. I can’t figure it out. It’s because I’m sniffing glue all the time. Everyday… Everyday…Everyday.
10:11:30:00
Tanya: My friend Vitia came with me. We went to Lesnaya, where we decided to put up a tent in the woods. That’s how we lived for three months. At the time I was pregnant. I felt a pain in my stomach, but I just thought that I had alcohol poisoning.
10:12:00:00 So I went back to the place where we were living in the tent. In the morning, I gave birth to my eldest son, Bogdan. I had a lot of clothes – t-shirts and jackets – so I wrapped him in them and then I fell asleep beside him.
10:12:30:00 As Bogdan was so small they sent us to the children’s hospital so that we could have a proper check up. I wanted to leave for a couple of hours to go and earn some money but the hospital staff would not let me go. When no-one was around, I decided to go to the high road to turn a couple of tricks.
10:13:00:00 So I can buy some nappies. So I ran away and didn’t go back.
Ruslan: Yesterday we met Bogdan’s biological father. He had just been released from prison. He was sent to prison for stealing. Maybe I should go to him and say:
10:13:30:00 “Thank you for giving me such a wonderful son.” Because (Bogdan) is my son. It doesn’t matter that I am not his biological father. He is my son and if someone tried to take him away from me
10:14:00:00 I would tear that person to pieces. I have my own biological son, David, but to me there is no difference between Bogdan and David. I love them the same.
Vasya
Chippolino
(singing,
off camera): Mother you are sleeping,
10:14:30:00 but they are dressing you up in this black,
very black, unusual costume,
And strangers are reading a prayer,
And candles keep burning and burning.
Father, tell me: “Why is mother silent?”
10:15:00:00 “Oh sonny, oh sonny, please stop it please stop…”
“all mothers alive – yours just died.”
10:15:30:00
10:16:00:00 Vasya: They are called the Special Police Force. They are the
ones who beat the worst. They put masks on…. ‘mask show’ we call it. They don’t ask any questions, they just beat immediately. Whoever is in their way gets the worst beating. Whoever is able to hide is lucky.
10:16:30:00 Sanya: We were sleeping in the sewer pipeline when they
came. They figured out that we were living there and took us outside. It was the winter and it was so cold. They lined us up and made us stand there. One policeman started beating up Ruslana.
10:17:00:00 Her brothers, Vasya and Chippolino asked: “Why are you punching her?” The policeman was a total psycho. He said: “Shut your mouth, you pig!” Vasya replied: “He’s not a pig, he’s a human.”
Vasya: I gabbed a metal pole from a broken bed and ran to the windows and started breaking the bars. I got out into the street – ‘Freedom!’
10:17:30:00 There were three policemen standing under the stairwell, but I didn’t see them. I was whistling, they came up behind me, cuffed me and threw me back into the shelter.
Sanya: They stopped the police car right in front of me, handcuffed me and drove me away. Once in the car, I started shouting. The driver said: “Shut up, or I’ll shoot you in the head.”
Vasya: They brought me to the Director of the shelter.
10:18:00:00 The fat guy – Tanya knows him. He’s a very bad guy. He loves to beat up children. The Director took the policeman’s baton – you know, the striped one – and says: “Do you want me to break your skull?” And I replied: “Yeah, do it.” The Director was a little drunk and started to lose it. He grabs me by the ear and drags me into his office. I thought he was going to kill me.
10:18:30:00 Sanya: One even my mother was beaten up by the police. It
was because she came drunk to pick me up from the police station. As I was standing there, waiting for my mother, I heard screams from the office. I ran into the office and started swearing at the policemen. They cuffed my mother and took her away to a cell.
10:19:00:00 After that incident, I stupidly thought that I could blow up the police station into small pieces. Half of it, or even all of it, would be gone. So that only a hole in the ground is left… for garbage. This has been my dream for a very long time.
10:19:30:00
Ruslana: You open it here. You see? You unscrew the top…
10:20:00:00
Group
(Vitalik): This is my glue!
Ruslana: Watch. It is their glue but we’ll give it to them after. Look – do you see the seal is broken?
Group: Tell them…
Ruslana: Get off me!
10:20:30:00 You pour it in… then pass it to the next person. And they take care of their own. Then you take it like this and sniff. Here we go!
10:21:00:00 When you sniff glue you don’t want to eat anything.
Sanya: They buy glue and go to Vitalik’s. They go there just to sleep, watch TV and sometimes take a shower. Now I don’t visit Vitalik’s any more,
10:21:30:00 because the flat has turned into a drug house.
Tanya: We kept asking them to stop sniffing glue. We begged them to do it in the bathroom or somewhere outside, but not in the main room because in there the children were inhaling it. I worried that it would damage their lungs, kidneys… the whole of their body.
10:22:00:00 Vitalik: I understand kids – going around making a mess. I can
deal with that, but you can’t put all the blame on the kids.
Tanya: Once, in the middle of the night, one of the girls told us: “If you don’t want your children to be around this smell then why don’t you all just pack up and leave?”
Chippolino: We did not throw them out of here. They decided to go.
Vitalik: They were welcome to live here peacefully. So live and let live!
10:22:30:00 They were even given this bed.
Chippolino: They had this bed. But when they brought in food, they would cook for themselves and would never give any to us.
Tanya: What right did she have to tell us to leave? She did not own the flat – we were all living together. We were meant to make compromises so that everyone lived in peace.
10:23:00:00
Security Guard
(off camera): How many times do I have to say it? Go away! I don’t have to listen to you. Go away. You can’t stay here anymore. People are buying food here and you are sniffing glue. Go away!
Sanya: No, listen – have you seen me sniffing glue?
Security Guard: I don’t have to listen, get out of here! What don’t you
understand?
Sanya: Who are you to tell me to get out of here? Do you think you are my father or something?
10:23:30:00 Security Guard: If I had a son like you I would kill him.
Sanya: Oh… you would kill me?
Security Guard: Get out of here!
Sanya: I won’t go anywhere.
Security Guard: What don’t you understand?
Sanya: My father came into the bathroom with an axe. He had decided to kill me in the bath.
10:24:00:00 Mother ran in with a hammer and said: “Either you get away from him, or I’ll hit you on the head with this hammer.” Father simply replied: “I’ll chop you with this axe.” I stood up. Mother threw the hammer at fathers leg and knocked the axe out of his hand.
10:24:30:00 The axe landed in between my legs.
Then my mother got a lover. My mother used to swear at him badly when she was drunk. Later, he beat her so badly that she was hospitalised.
10:25:00:00 She was in hospital for about half a year. She never wrote from the hospital. But when she felt that she was dying she confessed to me the truth about her lover beating her up. It was all because she swore at him when she was drunk in his flat.
10:25:30:00 He punched her on the face and she fell to the ground. He was kicking her so hard that she was bouncing off the floor because of the blows. Her internal organs were very badly damaged. She said: “It just happened like that…if I hadn’t been drunk, and hadn’t sworn at him, it would never have happened.”
10:26:00:00 I was visiting her regularly, bringing her mostly stolen money. What would it look like if I were to visit my mother empty handed? The neighbours were trying to shield me from the truth but mother died.
Ruslana
(singing,
off camera): Don’t wait… I won’t return home tonight,
10:26:30:00 Mother, I’ve left home for good,
Father will be drunk from early morning,
I was nothing but a bad dream for him,
I’m a drifter. A vagrant wanderer,
Lonely as the wind itself,
I’m a drifter but I am my own master,
10:27:00:00 and I won’t sell my freedom for the world.
I never felt a tender hand from childhood,
I never saw my father sober,
No-one read a bedtime story,
Only beatings for me and mother,
I’m a drifter. A vagrant wanderer.
Lonely as the wind itself,
10:27:30:00 I’m a drifter but I am my own master,
and I won’t sell my freedom for the world.
Vitalik: I want to do things but first I would have to throw everybody out and get my brain working. I can’t throw them out, I feel sorry for them. What will they do? It’s cold on the streets.
10:28:00:00 And anyway, winter is coming…
Sanya: Last night I thought I would freeze to death if it was not for the dogs, Uksus and Zina. They kept me warm. I was shivering all night. It was even freezing in the cave…even thought they all crawled in and made an enormous pile.
Tanya: The winter is coming to the streets,
10:28:30:00 so in order not to freeze, we have to rent something. We have to live somehow.
Ruslan: We’ll rent a flat and get a month’s supply of food so that we have enough to eat. I will go to work and we will sort everything out. Start living a normal life. I’m fed up with all of this. To sleep like this under a bridge…
10:29:00:00 it makes me furious.
Sanya: Now I don’t drink much because I fear I will end up like my mother and father. I see Ruslan and Tanya walking around with the kids and I feel sorry for them.
10:29:30:00 When Ruslan is drunk he beats up the kids. You don’t teach them anything when you beat them up…when you’re drunk.
Ruslan: Why do I drink vodka? I simply can’t look at this life which we are living sober.
10:30:00:00 We’re on the street with the kids…She’s working as a prostitute…I’m a thief…I just can’t look at all this sober. That is why I drink.
Vitalik: Mother was starting to drink more vodka. And she lost it to alcohol… Everybody lost it to alcohol.
10:30:30:00 Ira: What are you talking about? Who lost it to alcohol? Do
you see an alcoholic in me?
Vitalik: So why do you hurt yourself then?
Ira: What is your problem? You are really weird today. I fell sick when Olia cut me. That’s how it started. Why are you blaming vodka? You put things together not knowing what is what.
Vitalik: Sometimes she drank.
10:31:00:00 Tanya: He starts drinking. Bit by bit, bit by bit. And then the
second day, it’s always a hangover. He says he’ll only drink a little. 50 gr and that’s it. But then he meets some friends and one of them will want a drink, but has no one to drink with. Eveyone who lives here at Lev’ka, when they want to drink they come looking for Ruslan.
One day we came to the river and Uncle Tolik was here, fishing. He had just got his pension.
10:31:30:00 (He said to Ruslan): “I want a drink. Have a drink with me.” - “OK, let’s drink” and they drank. Uncle Tolik was left with ($0.50) in his pocket out of his entire monthly pension. And then … he had a heart attack.
Vitalik: We bought an electricity counter. They sold it for money for drink. They broke tha bath tub, smashed all the windows…
Ira: When I bought the elevtricity counter you told me that we didn’t need it!
Vitalik: We don’t need it…? Everybody needs an electricity counter!
Ira: I don’t know why it wasn’t needed…
10:32:00:00 Tanya: It seems like he’s starting to have ‘white fever’ when he
drinks. He was walking ahead of me with Bogdan. I was carrying David. All of a sudden, Ruslan turned around and slapped me with the back of his hand. I start falling and I can’t catch David. He slips out of my hands. David hits his head on the concrete and starts crying.
10:32:30:00 I pick him up and try to calm him down. Ruslan walks over and throws Bogdan at me. He just came over and threw him at me! My hands were busy with David and so I couldn’t catch Bogdan. He falls as well and starts crying. I can hear the cab drivers shouting: “Call the police! Call the police!”, “He’s beating her up! He’s taking it out on the kids!”
10:33:00:00 Vitalik: I don’t have anything normal to say about you. What
can I say that is normal about you? There is nothing good that I could say about her.
Other
(Off camera): But regardless she is your mother…
Vitalik: What good can I say? What good did she do in the last ten years. Nothing. Just drank vodka…and slept around.
10:33:30:00
Ruslan: Most of the guys from Lev’ka know that she’s working on the high road. So how can I look them in the eye? They look at me knowing that my wife is working as a prostitute. I’m boiling inside.
10:34:00:00 When we were landing in Sarajevo we got ambushed. One guy ran out and a bullet found him… he was killed. They were bringing us out into a hail of gunfire.
10:34:30:00 One officer, who was teaching us ‘life lessons’, loaded his gun and told us: “Either you go out … or I’ll shoot you myself”. My friend Sasha jumped out of the wrong side of the armoured car. He jumped out on the side which was under fire.
10:35:00:00 He was shot with a big calibre bullet. After Sasha died, I killed for the first time. I was the smallest one in our unit… I was the least noticeable.
10:35:30:00 I killed a person simply with a knife. Their posts were already set and so we had to take out the guard. As I was the smallest, I had to go. I had to put a knife into his throat.
10:36:00:00
When I ignore it and don’t think about it, it’s ok.
10:36:30:00 But when I start to remember… sometimes it happens at night. Tanya keeps asking: “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” I always answer that I have a pain in my stomach but really I am dreaming about Sasha’s death.
10:37:00:00
I have a wish to take that knife and stick it into my throat and tear it but I have to feed the kids. If it were not for the kids I would have done it a long time ago.
10:37:30:00 Vitalik: (Uncle) Sergey first started living here after he lost his
flat. He had a quarrel with his wife and they started living separately. It was his son’s birthday…He had some drinks and was driving his car. He smashed into another car. He wasn’t able to pay his debts and so he sold the flat.
10:38:00:00
Ruslana: Uncle (Sergey) was drunk. He asked us to give him some money. Vitalik asked: “Is it to buy more vodka? If so, we won’t give you any more food.” Sergey said: “If you won’t, I’ll throw you all out of here!” He went into the other room… took a plate full of porridge and threw it straight at (Vitalik’s) face.
10:38:30:00 The plate smashed and cut open his eye and his lip. Vitalik asked Vasya to kill Sergey…to step in for him. I said: “Vasya, don’t touch him. He’ll call the police. Get dressed first…just ignore him.”
We got dressed and gathered our stuff. Uncle then became very abusive towards everyone.
10:39:00:00 Vasya could not take it any longer…and started beating Sergey. Uncle wet himself. He wanted to call the police but Vasya stopped him. Uncle pleaded: “Vasya don’t touch me.”
Vasya did not want to stop, but I told him that was enough. And then we left. Vitalik said: “I’m leaving home forever. I’ll come and live with you.”
10:39:30:00 He came to Lev’ka for a while but eventually went back home. He asked us to go back too, but we said “No”.
Vasya: I feel sorry for him. He’s not eating anything.
10:40:00:00 I feel bad about what happened, but what he did wasn’t right. He took a plate and broke it on Vitalik’s face. Now he just sits there…He can’t get up. I just don’t realise the power of my blows, It’s not good. I won’t be doing that any more…seriously.
10:40:30:00 God forbid, I could have killed him.
Now I’m feeling sorry for myself, I’m feeling really bad. I was ashamed to go and ask for his forgiveness. After I have beaten him up so badly…to then go and ask for his forgiveness…But I did it anyway, and he said that everything was ok. “I’ll forgive you.”
10:41:00:00 He’s a good guy. I’m a fool. I was wrong to do it. They should have solved the problem between themselves and then maybe it wouldn’t have happened.
Vika: Vitalik is coming.
Vitalik: Then I called Aunt Natasha, (Sergey’s) wife. That’s it…The morgue car came, police. The ambulance first…
10:41:30:00 and then the police and then the morgue car.
Group
(Off camera): Was he taken away?
Vitalik: Who…Sergey? Yes, of course. What…you think they will leave him to lie in the bath?
Group: And were was Mother?
Vitalik: Mother was at home. Mother left home as well.
Group: No… Yes, yes. She went down into the street.
10:42:00:00 She was crying, afraid to go back up into the flat.
Vasya: She is screwed up in the head but she does understand.
Group: She said: “Where is Vitalik?”, “Don’t do anything without Vitalik.”, “Vitalik will come soon.”, “Go get Vitalik.”
Vasya: You know how it happened? We came to the flat and the girls were asleep.
10:42:30:00 We went into the kitchen and heard water running. Kolya went into the bathroom and saw him lying there… looking blue. All of us went running into the kitchen screaming, crying. Byelka says: “Wait. We will run and get Vitalik.”
Ruslana: We were sleeping. They woke us up.
Vasya: His head was under the water.
10:43:00:00 Kolia took his head out of the water and put his hand on the edge of the bath so that he didn’t go under water. He moved Sergey’s hand out of the water but it slid back itself.
Chippolino
and Vasya: Listen, you remember, when I was taking a shower, he told Yoska to get out of there.
10:43:30:00 (Sergey) was saying before: “Guys, I have a headache. Let me have a bath.” Everything was normal. I couldn’t imagine that he would die.
Vitalik: What difference does it make? This is the end.
Ira: First of all, I’m feeling bad. How do I feel…? How do I feel…?
10:44:00:00
I feel…
Vitalik: He died because he was beaten up.
Vasya: Experts will say why he died.
10:44:30:00 He was alive. Walking, drinking…I don’t know what happened. When I made borsch, he was eating it.
Vitalik: The conclusion of the doctor is that those broken ribs were rubbing the lungs
10:45:00:00 …causing…I don’t remember how it’s called… internal bleeding. And he felt really bad and eventually his heart stopped. I put him closer to death. That’s what a friend of his told me.
Vasya: We were scared. There were no adults around.
10:45:30:00 It was the first time that we had seen a drowned body…the first time in my life.
Vitalik: I am guilty because I asked (Vasya) to beat up Sergey. He’s not guilty. I don’t think that he’s guilty. But even with everything that came before this
10:46:00:00 I no longer consider him my friend. He is not my friend. I don’t consider anyone in Lev’ka to be my friend.
Vasya: I can’t imagine how Vitalik will live through all of this. His uncle was taking care of his sick mother. I don’t know what he’ll do now.
10:46:30:00 They can take away the flat from him.
Sanya: Yes they can.
Vasya: He is not adult yet. Uncle took his passport, all of their documents, and hid them all.
Vitalik: I can’t even go into the bathroom myself.
10:47:00:00 There’s no light in there. Its dark. I’m afraid. That’s it. I can’t speak anymore.
10:47:30:00 Less than two weeks after Sergey’s death, Vitalik threw himself out of the apartment window…he survived.
The Ukraine, Europe’s second largest country, has been struggling for social and economic stability since independence from the U.S.S.R in 1991.
As a result, there are an estimated 1,000,000 children and teenagers currently living homeless on Ukraine’s streets…
10:48:00:00 Sanya: Life has changed. I don’t feel like I did in my childhood
– I feel myself becoming a man. There are times when I feel like an old man.
10:48:30:00 Tanya: We would live well if we could accomplish our plans.
And if Ruslan stopped drinking it would be absolutely wonderful.
Ruslan: They are picking people for Iraq. It is because of the children that I won’t go,
10:49:00:00 so in the future they won’t say that their father abandoned them.
Vasya: We bought two bottles and drank them to try and calm ourselves. We drank to conquer our fear. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.
Vitalik: The kids from around here…we can pull ourselves out somehow.
10:49:30:00 But the kids from other towns, they can’t…they are lost cases. I don’t know what will happen to them.
Ruslana: Yushchenko will make everything normal here in Ukraine. There will be no thieves… They will all be jailed. There will be no poor people, begging like us…they will all have a home. Everything will be better.
10:50:00:00 It won’t be like it is now under Kuchma. He allows glue, vodka, theft. Kuchma out…and Ruslana in!
Written and Directed by
Shira Pinson
Produced by
Sarah Tierney
Camera
Shira Pinson and Madelaine Leeson
10:50:30:00
Editor
Nigel Galt
Original Composition by
James Burrell
Production Manage / Translator
Gediminas Adomaitis
On-line Editor
Steve Gibbs
Dubbing Mixer
David Woolley
Matt Baird
Additional Footage
Andrey Svetilnikov
Susanne Deitz
Production Facilities – Ukraine
Pack Shot Boys Film
Post Production Facilities – UK
Edit Video Ltd
Tambuti Films Ltd
10:51:00:00
Post Production Translation
Nijole Bagdziute
Elena Bylinkina
Sasha Kamenetski
Natalia Rolleston
Louisa Smith
Olga Tsarich
Anna Weddell
Special Thanks:
Tanya, Ruslan, Bogdan and David, Sanya, Vasya, Chippolio, Ruslana, Vitalik, Ira and Uncle Sergey
And all their friends at Lev’ka
10:51:30:00 Special Thanks:
Renato Arvedi
Paul Augarde
Mary Brinkley
The Donsky Family
Arie Farnam
Kelsey Hoppe
Victor Karpenko
Arnold Kremenchutsky
James Manuel
Vyacheslav Nelep
Svetlana Nikitova
Fabian Peters
Hari Sankaran
Carol Sinclair
Andrey Svetilnikov
Misha Tkachuk
Colin Tucker
Patricia Wright
and especially Cecile Trijessar.
Special Thanks:
Hope and Homes for Children – UK and Ukraine
Internews – Ukraine
New Beginnings
The One World Broadcasting Trust
The Research Centre for Television and Interactivity
UNICEF – Ukraine
Special Thanks:
Creative Video Associates
Funky Media
GB Supplies
Hammerhead
TV Metro
Broadcast Monjon
Moody Monster Ltd
Remote Films
World Wide Tape
and especially Edit Video Ltd
Clarity Productions Ltd
10:52:00:00