Frontline

Film phase:Development

SYNOPSIS

Frontline is both a personal story and a video diary of life on the frontline, revealing a very different, unseen aspect of war. It is a palette of states, a prolonged look at the world around us, through a camera that is both a soldier’s eye and a documentary filmmaker’s eye. 

Frontline will be a poetic documentary based on weeks of shooting from the cold early days of Spring to the Summer of 2022, while Alisa’s unit holds its position. This intimate film will be an insight into a very specific world of a frontline seen from a unique female perspective. 

Frontline is a 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Alisa Kovalenko looking directly at the camera. She is sitting on a wooden floor and wearing denim trousers and a white shirt. Her shoulder-length hair is curly. Black and white portrait.Alisa Kovalenko (she/her) was born in Zaporizhia, South-Eastern Ukraine. She studied at the Karpenko-Kary Cinema University of Kyiv and at the Andrzej Wajda School in Warsaw. Her debut documentary Alisa in Warland (2015) premiered in Amsterdam at the IDFA Competition for First Appearance. Her second documentary, Home Games (2018), a social intimate drama about a young female football player, was again an IDFA selection, playing in more than 100 festivals, and winning 11 awards, including Sheffield Doc/Fest. 

 

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS

Kasia Kuczyńska looking directly at camera and is smiling. She has long, dark hair and is wearing a crew neck shirt. Black and white portrait.Katarzyna Kuczynska (she/her) is a Polish producer at HAKA Films in Warsaw. She graduated from Lodz Film School. Katarzyna has worked on international co-productions such as Communion, directed by Anna Zamecka, which went on to win the EFA Award for Best Documentary in 2017. HAKA’s first documentary, Boylesque, by Bogna Kowalczyk, premiered at Hot Docs 2022. HAKA Films is co-producing Alisa Kovalenko’s feature-length documentary, We Will Not Fade Away. Katarzyna is a part of Ji.hlava’s Emerging Producers 2023 programme.

 

 

Monica Hellström looking directly at camera. Black and white portrait.Monica Hellström (she/her) is a Danish producer. Monica worked as a producer at Final Cut for Real from 2010 to 2022, when she started her own company, Ström Pictures. Monica was the lead producer on the award-winning documentary Flee (2021) by Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Monica’s most recent titles as producer include A House Made of Splinters (2022) and The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017), by Simon Lereng Wilmont, and He’s My Brother (2020) by Cille Hannibal and Christine Hanberg. 

Valeryi Kalmykov looking directly at camera. He is wearing a black t-shirt and is sitting in front of bamboo shades. Black and white portrait.Valery Kalmykov (he/him) is a Ukrainian producer who founded Truman Films in 2013. In 2014, he produced My Mermaid My Lorelei, directed by Nana Jorjadze, which was an official selection in several festivals in 2015, such as Warsaw Film Festival and Cottbus Film Festival. In 2017, Valery produced 5 Therapy, directed by Alisa Pavslovskaya, and in 2018 he completed another film by Alisa Pavslovskaya entitled Gogoldoc, which was chosen for Best Documentary at the International Filmmakers Festival of New York. His latest documentary, We Will Not Fade Away by Alisa Kovalenko will premiere in early 2023.