“Of course you are tired of war. Of course people don’t want the war. But it’s the war for our freedom.”

Thanks to Ung Media Sverige I got the opportunity to cover the event of the Novemberfestivalen held in Sweden as a journalist with Young West Media Agency (Ung Media Väst), where I began my professional path in journalism.

Before going to the Novemberfestivalen, I had many ideas about what I could write. I thought about doing an article on my first impression of the place, talking about the city of Trollhättan, writing about people’s reactions, or exploring why so many of us were brought together with the same purpose: to share what we feel. To shift our gaze toward the perspective of the other, to see another reality through their eyes, to empathize with them. As Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger proposes the notion of ‘wit(h)ness’, not about looking from a distance, but about staying close to the other. Then, one becomes involved and shares the pain with the other, advocating for a more empathetic and democratic way of seeing.

My first time in Trollhättan, my first time at a film festival, my first time working as a journalist, and my first time conducting an interview. I could say I felt a bit overstimulated, but my excitement for the experience outweighed my fears. Too many first times, one might say.

The interesting thing was that once you step into the experience, once you truly engage with the environment, the outcome becomes completely different. That’s where I met Olga Artushevska, the director of the short film Game of Symbols. I approached her to ask for an interview about her film and her work as a director, but an informal conversation sparked almost instantly, the kind that pulls you in without you realizing it. And in that unexpected moment, she told me about her long journey from Kyiv to get here for the festival. She said it took her two days to arrive.

This is the app Olga has on her phone. It shows the city of Ukraine on a map filled with hundreds of red icons representing shelters across the area. At the top, the title ‘Міська мапа’ (City Map), with selectable options like “Укриття” (shelters) and “Пункти обігріву” (heating points). The map shows the Kyiv region in the background, and the icons indicate the available civil-defense shelter locations.

It’s an everyday app, as ordinary as opening the weather app, except that this one also provides information about scheduled blackouts, including the hours when electricity will be cut and when it will return. She also explained to me that there are several apps like this, as each city has its own version.

“24 February 2022 I woke up from the bombs and sirens, it was an unexpected alarm. But before 2022 it was a hybrid war because it was in one part of the territory not the whole country, in the East of the country, and in 2022 the full-scale war started. Of course you are tired of war. Of course people don’t want the war. But it’s the war for our freedom. And we can’t just let them go and let Russians come to our houses. That’s why we are still fighting because we want to have our normal lives as Ukrainians”.

Are you scared?

“Personally, me, I feel scared if one day we are Russians, and not Ukrainians anymore. This is what I’m really scared, but I’m doing everything, personally I’m doing everything what I can to not let this happen. I don’t think about my scare honestly. I just think about what I can do and then trying to do it. So, then no place for scare.”

After such an intense conversation, there was hardly any room left for conducting another interview of that depth. For me, this is the real meaning of shaping a space where a film or a short is screened: discovering the hidden message that isn’t spelled out on screen, reading between the lines through the director’s own lived experience.

When we finally shifted into the more formal part of the interview to talk about her work, I got to see a truly remarkable side of Olga, her spontaneity and openness. Speaking with her was incredibly easy; she is someone who knows her limits very well yet isn’t afraid of crossing them.

What do you hope young audiences take away from your film?

“That you can play, you’re going to have fun it’s the main idea, you can try different things. At least with your mistakes, just go through it, and became better. Because I think every next film is better than the previous. And for example, yes, now I’m sitting in the big hall and watching my film with a bunch of people, and it’s kind of embarrassing and awkward. But at the same time, I feel no shame about my film, yes, I see my mistakes, I see a lot of things that I would make another way. But it’s my experience, I was 22 when I made this film, now I’m 24 a different person. So, yeah, it’s part of my experience.”

Do you think your context affects the way you write the films?

“I think maybe yes even if I don’t see it sometimes. Sometimes you can see it, like right now. But yes, but it’s not bad, because everybody has a context. Even if you are from a peaceful country, you have your own concept, depending on the context.”

It was a real pleasure to chat with Olga for a while; her vitality is admirable, and she radiates it. She is a true symbol of self-improvement and hard work. Without a doubt, she will one day be a highly recognized director, and I wish her all the best.