LITTLE PEOPLE

English title: Little People

Original title: Malenky lyudy / Маленькі люди

Genre: Documentary, Drama

Director/DOP: Ivan Sautkin 

Executive producer: Elena Saulich

Associated producer: Mike Lerner

Production company: Babylon’13 (Ukraine)

Language(s): Russian, Ukrainian 

Country: Ukraine

Current phase: post-production

One of the scenes (5min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPgp72edAN0

The message in the bottle of this film: “The war that Russia brought to our land, first of all, strikes the weakest. Helpless, naive – little people.” 

The film is composed of several short stories.  

We see the inhabitants of the front-line territory, whose usual life is being destroyed right in front of us. These are people who do not dare to make the decision to evacuate from war-ravaged cities and villages. Until the last minute, they cling to the little islands of happiness that they have built throughout their lives. No matter that they were destroyed a long time ago and are dangerous – they are still alive in the minds of these people. Together with these protagonists, we leave homes and abandon memories, dreams, and even God himself, as happens in one of the novellas of the film. 

The guide to this world is a group of volunteers engaged in the evacuation of civilians. Risking their lives, Anton, the leader of the team, and his friends take people from front-line settlements, and they have to be convinced first that their lives are worth fighting for. 

In parallel with the main plot line – the story of two residents of the de-occupied Chernihiv region, who chose active resistance to the occupiers and are doing everything they can in their old age. Zinaida Hryhoriivna lives on the first floor of a two-stor building. During the occupation, she counted the Russian tanks passing by her window and shared the information with Ukrainian intelligence. And she also hid a marble memorial plaque behind the sofa in honor of her brother Levko Lukyanenko, the author of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. 

Her friend, Taisia ​​Timofievna, writes poems. When the Russian invaders occupied their village, she wrote a poem in Russian and wanted to distribute leaflets with it so that the Russian soldiers would realize what they were doing. However, she was scared and did not do it. This is naive folk poetry: the imperfection of the rhymes combined with the sincerity of the author makes her poems even more poignant. 

When you observe the events of the war, you see aggressors and victims of aggression, brave soldiers and politicians, bloody crimes, destroyed houses, the destitute, the maimed, and the bodies of the dead. This is what constitutes the familiar image of war, and we know how to react: it hurts, frightens, frustrates, and infuriates us. Children and mentally unstable people should be protected from it because it is about death and suffering. But, in addition to the heroes of historical events that we used to see in news stories, there are some who we usually do not notice. These are simple, “little” people. Those who make mistakes can be naive, clumsy, and unpleasant; cry, laugh, love, and hate. They do things that we usually hide from prying eyes. And these “little ones” are the most vulnerable. 

It is quite understandable that we want to turn away, not to watch the old woman cry, while she’s abandoning her apartment or the mentally ill person surviving in a city under shelling. It hurts to see it. But, as you know, growing up occurs exactly where it hurts. This point of view gives us a chance to realize the true value of human life and the gravity of Russia’s crime.

  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=
  • src=