A Ukrainian Girl Traumatized By War Confronts Her Fears In ‘Camp Courage,’ Max Lowe’s Oscar-Contending Short
15.12.2023 - 00:43
/ deadline.com
At the beginning of the Netflix Oscar-contending short documentary Camp Courage, young Milana Abdurashytova takes out paper and makers and draws what she calls “a home of my dreams.” It’s a lovely cottage on a hill, with clouds dotting a sky of blue.
Her real home, in Mariupol, Ukraine lies in ruins like so much of that city and the country, pulverized by Russia bombs and shells. Milana and her grandmother Olga were able to escape Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and take refuge in Slovakia. But escaping the trauma of war is another matter.
In the film directed by Max Lowe, Milana gets the opportunity to participate in a week-long camp in the peaks surrounding Piesendorf, Austria, joining other Ukrainian kids who have endured shattering loss from the brutal conflict. The camp is a project of the Mountain Seed Foundation, a nonprofit that describes its mission as “unleashing resilience in unconventional ways.”
“The impetus behind the camp is just really beautiful and inspiring,” Lowe tells Deadline. “A big component of the camp that they wanted to facilitate is addressing the trauma that all these families had recently experienced coming out of this war zone and now living displaced as refugees across Europe.”
Milana was just three years old in 2015 when her mother took her to the store one day in Mariupol. Russian-backed forces, who already at that point were attacking positions in Eastern Ukraine, shelled the neighborhood.
“Milana was found under debris, lying next to her mother, who was already dead,” according to a published account. “Luckily, the child was rescued by a passer-by.”
Olga says in the film of her granddaughter, “She went through a lot. So much suffering and pain.” She adds, Milana