Twice-Oscar-nominated producer Monica Hellstrøm and her partner at Copenhagen-based Final Cut For Real, Simon Lereng Wilmont, are supporting the evacuation of the protagonists of one of their films, The Distant Barking of Dogs, from a war-torn area of eastern Ukraine.
The doc, which premiered in 2017 and was Oscar shortlisted, is set on the frontline of the conflict. It follows 10-year-old Ukrainian boy Oleg throughout a year, witnessing the gradual erosion of his innocence beneath the pressures of war.
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As first reported by the Nordisk Film and TV Fond, Hellstrøm and Lereng Wilmont are launching an appeal to support a local NGO helping kids in eastern Ukraine as the conflict escalates in the country. Earlier today, Russian forces began an assault on Ukraine, an action that has been widely condemned by international organizations.
Hellstrøm said both Oleg, the protagonist of The Distant Barking of Dogs, and his grandmother, have now been evacuated to a safer area in the western part of Ukraine.
The producer added that the protagonists of another Final Cut For Real documentary, A House Made of Splinters, which was set in a children’s shelter in Luhansk, have also been moved further inland, away from potential bombardments.
A local assistant director and local production coordinator, Azad Safarov and Lena Rozvadovska, who founded NGO Voices Of Children, are helping to facilitate the evacuations, Hellstrøm explained.
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