“Our symbols here in our house, they’re our identity. We can’t forget where we come from and who we are. And our children must know this and remember this. First and foremost, we are Ukrainians and this is our background. This is the story of our lives, our journey from Ukraine to Canada.” – Yevhen
Imagine leaving behind the only home you’ve ever known to start a new life in a foreign country with unique cultural traditions and values, different customs and language. Now imagine that this move is triggered by circumstance rather than a lifelong dream.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, close to 300,000 Ukrainians have been displaced in Canada, leaving behind homes, family and friends, successful careers. Some fled temporarily for their own safety, while others have sought to protect their families and provide for a peaceful future. Alberta has welcomed roughly one quarter of these newcomers in the past three years.
Horizons of Belonging is a 70-minute documentary produced by Legacy Films that explores the lives of four families or individuals who have settled in Alberta. Following them over the course of one year, the producers share the very real, emotional stories of courage and resilience, setbacks and triumphs, longing and joy. The experiences shared by these social actors also prompt us to consider the broader themes of identity and belonging, and the human capacity for change and growth.
Two individuals inspired director Steven Brese to embark on this journey of discovery: Dr. Roman Petryshyn, President of Alberta Local and International Education Association, who keenly understood the urgency of documenting the newcomer stories, and his own mother whose family fled Ukraine during the Second World War. Guided by curiosity, he sought to explore the immigrant experience by enabling the subjects to be the storytellers.
“There is no time that any of them forgot I was there. It’s impossible,” said Brese. “But they did come to understand that we were making this film together. The world does not know what it means to be them. I tried to let them be the director of their own story as only they can be,”
Brese credits the accessibility of the film for both Western and Eastern European audiences to his incredible production team including Ukrainians Oleksandr Pankieiev, assistant director, and Olena Goncharova, producer.
Respecting the diversity of Alberta, the film is fully bilingual with Ukrainian and English subtitles.
Watching this film, the viewer quickly comes to understand that Ukrainians are not homogenous. But the cultural bonds including language, food, song, customs and traditions are defining.
Brese adds that he was inspired by the resilience of these four families and their capacity, despite the struggles, to find reasons to hope and laugh.
“One of my goals was that Canadians could watch this film, spend some time with these families and understand what it means to be them. After you’ve spent an hour with these four families it becomes very difficult to think that this war doesn’t affect me,” concludes Brese,
While telling a Ukrainian story, Horizons of Belonging transcends cultural divides by also sharing the immigrant experience, Future plans include reaching new audiences at film festivals across North America.
