February 21 changed everything for Ukrainian actress Oksana Cherkashyna. Having screened Maryna Er Gorbach’s powerful film Klondike at the prestigious film festivals Sundance and Berlin, she was hoping that an invasion of her home

 country Ukraine was not going to be a reality. But it was soon to be exactly that. On February 24 it happened: Russia invaded Ukraine, and today, she sees the film Klondike from a whole new perspective.

The film deals with the conflict in her home country with Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashing in the vicinity of her small village in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The crash happened in 2014 with the whole world wondering what had just happened and whether or not the passenger plane had been shot down by mistake.

The film focuses on the pregnant woman Irka, played by Oksana Cherkashyna, who refuses to leave her country in spite of the growing unrest in the area. We spoke to Oksana Cherkashyna from Warsaw, where she is now residing.

You shot the film Klondike before the conflict escalated and Russia invaded Ukraine. You recently screened your film at the Stockfish film festival in Iceland. What was it like watching the film with the current situation in mind? Has the way you perceive it changed?

It changed a lot because we had premieres in January at Sundance and February at Berlinale when I still hoped the invasion would not happen. We all knew about the Russian military being close to our borders, but we still hoped that it was impossible for them to start killing people in a sovereign state. So, it did not only change the way I perceived the movie. February 21st actually changed how I perceive everything.

In which way did it change you?

It changed everything. It changed the way I view art; the way I view the world and the way I view politics. I do not believe in politics anymore. I no longer believe in the European community, the European Union. I no longer believe in the world community. There was practically no reaction from them.

It also changed the way I look at myself. Very early on, we understand that it is not about politics and money: what Putin is doing is meant to destroy all Ukrainians, and they are criminals. So, my identity is also under attack. It is not just my physical body that is under attack; it is also my identity. I am no longer the same Oksana I was before the war. I am in Warsaw, my body is safe, but I am still in real danger. I can stop existing as a subject. I have always been proud of being Ukrainian, but now I feel that we can all lose ourselves.

The film is written and directed by Maryna Er Gorbach. What was your reaction to the script when you read it?

Maryna is the kind of director who treated me as a partner. I was very excited about working with her because it is the best way to communicate. When she sent me the script, she told me that I had the right to make some changes to the script if I felt that something was not right for the heroine, whom we were creating together. I knew from the beginning that this was a woman who would go to the end and who would never stop. She would never stop researching her idea, and she will pull it through.

Irka is a pregnant woman who lives in the Donetsk district of eastern Ukraine near the Russian border: in the early days of the Donbas war, it is a disputed territory, but she does not want to leave. She is determined to stay at home living her life as she always has. What attracted you to the character of Irka?

Actresses look for this kind of heroine. I feel blessed to have been able to play this kind of heroine. That is what made me really excited about the part. There is a special energy when you have no fear, and you will give and do everything. After I watched the film, I was really happy that we did this kind of film because the film is about one woman resisting the war. I was afraid not to be able to portray this rebellious kind of woman and show how brave she is. But when I saw the movie, I felt that Irka is just being who she is without showing anything. She is just caring and being tender to her home and her daily life and she is obsessive about this. I found that resistance is not only about being powerful and having guns in your hands, the practice of caring and giving birth can also become a form of resistance. Irka is just continuing to live her life and what is most interesting is that this is usually meant to be repressive to women – that they are taking care of the domestic duties – but here, in this case, it becomes her weapon. Her tenderness and care for the cow, for instance, becomes her weapon, and that is why I like the film so much.

 

Irka decides to stay in her home country of Ukraine, even though her husband wants her to leave for a safe place. Why do you think this is? And do you see this mother giving birth to her child in her bombed house as symbolic?

I think it is very symbolic. Irka has become today’s Ukraine. What happens at the end of the film is about death and birth and it is what we are going through now as Ukrainians.

Irka is in her seventh month of pregnancy, so it is unexpected that she gives birth on the day she does. She thinks she has two more months, and she thinks she can go to the larger local hospital, so she does not expect to be giving birth under the circumstances she does.

So, on a symbolical level, this being a mother is also a kind of weapon because we see on the screen that a woman can do anything for another human being, and that is what is happening right now in Ukraine. There are so many stories about this kind of hero right now – people who are giving their life for another human being – but all these stories are not being told because it is impossible to have these million stories in the spotlight. It is a weapon because for a woman to give birth and save her child is something that shows her radical state of mind.

Irka is against her husband’s dealings with the Russian sympathizers. But it seems like he has no choice but to be on their side, while her position seems irrelevant to people around her. What do you think the film says about women in war?

I remember the third day of the invasion – my partner, who is in Kyiv right now, told me about his night in a bomb shelter, where he saw a woman giving birth to twins. I don’t remember the statistics but there were quite a few women giving birth in bomb shelters. Can you imagine little villages like the one in the film, Irka’s village, where they practically have nothing because the cities have been blocked? So, they have no food supplies, they are cut off from everything.

But when we made the film, I could not imagine that it could turn into this tragedy. When we have won this war and we have the statistics, I think thousands of children will be born during the war – the so-called war children. And even if the children survive, like the child in our film – what will become of these children?

Maryna based the film on a true story. So, the girl in the film will be around 8 years old now and all she has known all her life is war. The main communication between the people in the village is about the war. That is really awful.

Do you understand why Irka stays in Ukraine in spite of the fact that the war is escalating?

There is no right or wrong decision about staying. I understand it better now because my father decided to stay in Ukraine during the war. Each person finds his or her way of survival. My father decided to stay in Kharkiv – it is very dangerous to stay there, because the town is in the west of Ukraine, and it has been under attack both by airstrikes and on the ground. But he did not want to evacuate. We had a lot of talks on the phone, and I tried everything to convince him to evacuate, but he said he felt obliged to stay in the country for the people who stayed behind. For him, it is about his dignity. He will not go somewhere in Europe and feel that he left his country for people to die there. He also said he has houses that he built here, and he would rather die here with them than come back and find that there is nothing left. What he built around his life is his life, he said. He is very much in tune with his instincts and knows exactly what is right for him to do in this war.

How do you deal with this?

I am still processing his decision, but I know that it is about love. You have to accept the decision that the people you love make and give them your support. Every morning when I wake up, I think, “Today, something can happen – at his home or at his hidden station.” The same when I go to bed: “Tonight, something can happen.” I just want this kind of thinking to be over, but right now it is the reality that people are dying. You should be ready, and you should be strong. Of course, I have hope and I want to hug my father, but this is just the logic of war.

 

At the Sundance Film Festival, where you presented Klondike, you asked the question: “Do we as artists have a voice that can change reality? Is this possible?” What is the answer to this question, do you think?

Yes, I think so. Now, a couple of months after, I have realized that even if my voice is really small and I don’t have millions of people listening, it is enough for me that I have a few. I do not want to speak to millions of people, but I want to speak to people’s hearts. I do believe that we can change something through communication. I feel that as an artist I have to speak up about what Russian criminals are doing in my country. The Ukrainian people are met with pure evil. For me, they have crossed the line of what is human.

My question is now: is it possible for me to be an actress after this war? Is it possible for me to continue making art after this? Can I continue acting, when my colleagues do not have this possibility anymore? Five of my colleagues have already been killed by Russian guns.

But I still keep going because even if they are trying to destroy us, our identities, I will not let the criminals get this chance. They will never destroy me. They will never destroy my identity.