Film Update:
The Distant Barking of Dogs
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A tale of boyhood and survival in the crossfires of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature for the 91st Academy Awards.
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The Distant Barking of Dogs, directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont, followed the life of a 10-year-old Ukrainian boy named Oleg over the course of a year. Living in the small village of Hnutove in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Oleg’s home was a warzone that often echoed with anti-aircraft fire and mortar fire.
While many had already left this dangerous area, Oleg and his grandmother, Alexandra, had no other place to go. The film witnessed the gradual erosion of Oleg’s innocence beneath the pressures of war as well as the power of Oleg and Alexandra’s close relationship in survival.
In February 2022, Russia formally recognized the parts of the Donbas controlled by pro-Russian separatists as an independent state. Days later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
With war raging across the country, nowhere in Ukraine is safe.
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Lereng Wilmot and Danish producer Monica Hellström (Flee, The Distant Barking of Dogs, A House Made of Splinters) joined forces with their assistant director, Azad Safarov, and local production coordinator, Lena Rozvadovska, to successfully evacuate the film’s two protagonists.
They have partnered with Voices of Children – an NGO launched by Rozvadovska and Safarov in 2015 – to help kids who have been impacted by the war in Eastern Ukraine.
“We want to provide these children with food and clothing – everything they need,” said Hellström.
The Distant Barking of Dogs is streaming now on pov.org and the PBS app until April 25.
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"The film is about how people deal with the cracks in that illusion and about the human drive we have to survive no matter what. How, even amidst the most impossible circumstances, we build illusory worlds for ourselves in which we can find comfort and warmth, because we can't exist for long in chaos. Even when the illusion is demolished over and over again, we still keep building it back up again. That kind of tenacity is incredibly beautiful to me."
-Simon Lereng Wilmont, director
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Behind The Lens with Director Simon Lereng Wilmont
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