This is one of a series of occasional dispatches about life during the war in Ukraine.
KYIV, Ukraine — Alice Biletska knew it would be difficult filming in Ukraine, where people were constantly threatened by missile or drone attacks, but when she decided to tell the story of a Ukrainian singer torn between her career in the United States and her family in a war-torn country, she and her co-producer had little choice.
Ms Biletska said: “There was never any question about where we were going to film. “You have the soul of the people here. It’s very difficult to fake that. Our Ukrainian crew all have personal experience of this war, and have been through all of this, and each has a story.”
Ms. Bileska’s film, “Our House is on Fire,” will wrap up this week in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and after two months of filming under the specter of Russian airstrikes, it’s been a journey. extremely personal to all participants.
Filmed entirely in Ukraine, and primarily in the Kyiv region, the film follows a young Ukrainian singer named Sofia — played by Anastasiya Pustovit — trying to get to Los Angeles when she returns to Kiev for his wedding. his son.
When she is at home, war breaks out, and she is forced to make a difficult choice between career, family, and love. The film was co-written and directed by Ms Biletska, who was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and the story is based on her own experiences leaving her country and trying to get to Hollywood. Her co-writer and producer is an American, Brian Perkins.
In one scene, Sofia is seen fleeing in a car on the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, making her way through the woods near Hostomel, a Kyiv suburb, where a number of vicious skirmishes have occurred. fiercest between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the early days. belligerent. The word “children” was plastered on the car, and despite this, Russian soldiers opened fire on the car, injuring one passenger.
In another scene that is eerily realistic in its depiction of panic at the station Across Ukraine at the time, a crowd shouted and jostled to board a train in Kyiv as a lone soldier tried to control the crowd.
Biletska, who studied at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and spent weeks volunteering and helping with evacuations during the first few weeks of the war, said she wondered what more she could do.
“I have always dreamed of making a film about Ukraine because I will forever love this country, its people and its homeland,” she said. “When you’re an immigrant, you really re-evaluate and understand what home is. And when this war comes, it’s also another way to deal with a terrible sense of worthlessness: What can one person do when the whole country is facing evil? Well, I can tell a story,” she said.
Biletska continued: “We wanted to make this film now, even while the war was still going on, because it was really subjective. It’s a love story; it is the story of the homeland; it’s about all the choices we make — whether you leave or stay.”
Mr. Perkins specifically recalls one instance when the film was particularly close to home for someone on set.
“We shot a scene in Kyiv Metro and one of the extra scenes really took the time shelter in exactly that subway station with her kids,” he said.
Kyiv remained relatively quiet until the final week of filming, when air raid sirens sounded across the capital. One night, a Ukrainian drone lost control and was shot down by an air defense system, sending its parts flying down near where the crew was. The next night, at least 30 drones target Kiev.
For many in the film and theater industry in Ukraine, this is their first production since the war began. Viktor Shava, the film’s location manager, said he managed to schedule his time between working on set and joining an air defense unit that specializes in shooting down drones.
Filmmakers won’t have to wait long to share their work with the world. A preview of a scene from “Our House” is scheduled to be shown this month at the Cannes Film Festival, where the creators will discuss the making of the film.
