Ukrainian animator and director Anastasiia Falileieva is slowly starting the preparation phase of the production of her documentary animated film called “I Died in Irpin”. The project, which captures her personal diaries from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, represents an innovative combination of documentary footage with animation and autobiographical recordings.
The film works with authentic photos and footage taken during her stay in Irpin, where she fled “to safety” at the start of the war with her boyfriend. These will be combined with stop-motion and cut-out animation techniques. “I fell in love with stop-motion and I use this animation technique the most. I believe that cut-out of authentic photos and hand drawings will give the film an authentic look and interest the audience, because real objects and analog methods always delight and have a certain magic for the viewer. I have been doing collages and traditional animation since childhood and this is my safe artistic space to fully express myself. The subject matter of the film is hard, so I decided to choose these techniques so that I could freely show my real inner world and the absurdity of the whole situation,” explains the director.
The production of the film was supported by the Czech Film Fund. The film is expected to be approximately 10 minutes long and will be completed within the next year. The music for the film should be composed by Petr Marek from the group Midi Lidi, and the producers are still waiting for avf.sk to decide on a co-production with Artichoke.
