For three years, since the start of the full scale invasion to Ukraine, I have been aiming to get to Ukraine, to make my most personal film ever, about my family story. My slow storytelling rule - I think for a long time, but once the story is here, I do it.
Well, the story is here now. RISING IS A STATE OF MIND is more than a documentary I'm making—it's a living, breathing act of resistance against cultural erasure, and I need you to know about it—and I would kindly ask you to support this undertaking in any possible way.
My Story
When Russia, my mother's country, attacked Ukraine, my father’s country, in 2022 — I realized my mental health couldn't bear witnessing more Russian war crimes after collecting too many accounts in Chechnya.
Instead, I began writing a film about my family history, preparing for my first real interview with my father with one crucial question: "Dad, but why didn't you teach me Ukrainian? His answer was simple: "Your maternal grandmother forbade me to speak Ukrainian since we lived in Moscow".
The questions I explore concern my inescapable roots. In Russia, I'm a traitor; in Ukraine, I'll never be Ukrainian enough, having grown up Russian-speaking in Moscow. I wrote this text in French because that’s my primary language today. The beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 made me apply my skills of a war reporter to my own family history investigation.
To preserve my mental health and get into thinking, I sought refuge in the French countryside. That's where something beautiful began to grow from the darkness three years later.
Anni Pohto, a Finnish singer-songwriter and dear friend, came to perform at my housewarming party. During my darkest moments, I would blast her song "Amor Mundi" in my car and sing along. This song, inspired by Hannah Arendt, also speaks of Finland being forced to join NATO. We were born on opposite sides of the Soviet-Finnish border—now closed again because of the war. We both lived through the opening of the '90s, the economic boom, and the reconciliation between our nations. Today, this border separates our countries again, but it has only made our friendship more important.
Learn more about Anni’s music in the links below.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/annipohto
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annipohto/
Our Journey
This August, I'll be behind the camera while Anni will be behind her piano, as we embark on a musical road trip through Europe's most historically charged cities:
️ Geneva - Where hope meets international cooperation
⚖️ Nuremberg - Carrying the weight of justice and accountability
Prague - Embodying resistance and peaceful revolution
Warsaw - Representing destruction and resurrection
Kyiv - The heart of cultural survival under fire
In each city, Anni will perform intimate home concerts while I document the interactions, creating communities around music and shared European values. We are perpetuating a tradition deeply rooted in our cultural DNA—like Chopin's "Revolutionary Étude," composed in anguish after the failed Polish uprising against Russia in 1831, or Vladimir Vysotsky's legendary apartment performances that spread hope through underground recordings across the Soviet Union's eleven time zones. Sometimes the roles will reverse, and Anni will take the camera as I revisit my own story.
Why This Can't Wait
Every day of delay means more irreplaceable cultural heritage remains vulnerable. In July alone, Russia sent 6,297 drones to Ukraine—the highest monthly number since the invasion began. Every attack is a potential threat to Ukraine's cultural heritage at large, and to the archives storing my very own family history that I have yet to discover. Even if the drone isn't flying toward Kyiv, every piece of news about a new attack endangers the health of my oldest uncle, Samuil, 82, in the Kyiv suburbs.
This isn't just about documenting history; it's about actively resisting cultural genocide as it happens. We're not waiting for post-war reconstruction—we're intervening now.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!