Enjoying young life and love in Russian-controlled Donetsk in eastern Ukraine was never going to be easy. But just how difficult it is can now be seen thanks to the documentary “Illegal Raves in Europe’s Only War Zone.”
A 44-minute production from British outlet Vice released on April 4, the film, which also covers the village of Sedove on the Azov Sea coast, shows how young people party just a few miles away from heavy fighting. The movie is hosted by Clive Martin as part of Vice’s “Big Night Out” series, which chronicles nightlife across the world.
A tale of two cities
Before the war and when still under Ukrainian control Donetsk was a major cultural center. It was home to many nightclubs, art galleries, newspapers and Ukraine’s strongest soccer team, Shakhtar Donetsk.
Youth could enjoy parties from dusk till dawn.
Today, Shakhtar have moved to Lviv on the other side of the country and more than a million people from the region have left for Kharkiv, Kyiv, Dnipro and other cities.
When Martin saw Donetsk the city had for more than a year been the capital of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. He describes it in the documentary as “a strange place” with its own “sinister charm.”
He witnesses how despite being in a war zone, people continue to enjoy drinking, foam parties and vacations by the sea. But in Donetsk, as he finds out, all parties must stop at 11 p.m when the curfew for civilians begins. Here, as in other separatist-controlled cities, it is forbidden after eleven to enjoy life or even walk the streets. Anyone found doing so can spend up to 15 days in jail.
Martin wrote on Twitter that the movie was made in Kyiv and Donetsk in the summer of 2016. He still does not know how Vice was granted permission for filming.
“Most other media is banned by the regime, but seeing as we were making a film about nightlife, they decided to let us in. To this day, I’m not sure exactly why, ” Martin wrote on vice.com.
The British journalist managed to enter the occupied territories at a time when the separatists had banned all media except Russian state-owned outlets.
Martin even asked Janus Putkonnen, a Finnish citizen and soap opera actor who presented himself as the rebel authorities “information minister,” why they decided to let him do the movie.
Putkonnen explained that they wanted British journalists to show “the truth” about the separatist-held territories to the world.
Putkonnen even tried to push some of his own messages in Martin’s documentary, including by saying things like, “We are all tired of the war but the violence is necessary because heroes are being born in this war.” and “The Donetsk People’s Republic is the start of a world revolution. We want a German People’s Republic, a British People’s Republic and much more.”
After making the film Martin wrote of Putkonen : “He was one of those people who was always going to end up in a place like this. A merchant of weirdness. I doubt this is the last we’ll hear of him.”
Home sweet home
In the documentary we see how Marting resists attempts to be used for propaganda, and decides to concentrate on the young generation of Donetsk natives.
He spends the night at an illegal party with local BMXers who call themselves Pilz Crew. Like every other young person in the world, he sees that they just live life to the full. For them, that means being free to ride their bikes.
“There are four times fewer people in the park than there were before (the war),” said one of the BMXers. “Soldiers can come and take you somewhere. Nobody knows where,”
To demonstrate that life continues in Donetsk the BMXers said they have created their own brand of clothes – Pilz. In a touching scene they present a cap to host Martin.
One young man sums up the group’s attitude:
“Despite the war, despite the arrests, I don’t want to flee Donetsk,” he tells the camera.
“Cause it is my hometown, it is here,” he says, pointing to his heart.
Party or fight?
For me, a Ukrainian based in Kyiv, Martin’s movie is an eye-opener.
The war in Donbas, which has already taken more than 10,000 lives, has turned my country upside down.
We all want it to be over and we want the Russian proxies, like the clown Putkonen or those “native” Donetsk fighters from Dagestan, who were dancing with Martin in a nightclub after the 11 p.m. curfew, to be prosecuted for their crimes.
A Ukrainian couldn’t make a documentary like this because many of the young people who feature in it, like the clothes-designing BMXers, would not talk so openly to someone like me. Russian propaganda has made us enemies. We see each other as “crazy and dangerous” and can no longer have a dialog without trading accusations.
In the Vice film the young protagonists shout “Who’s f*cked? Everyone is f*ucked!”
For a long time I couldn’t understand people like that, who have stayed in Donetsk under the current paranoid, Kremlin-backed regime. But in the documentary, many of them explain their reasons and I understood them, finally.
Still, recent decisions in Strasbourg mean Ukrainians will soon have visa-free travel to Europe and our options for escape will be even greater. But I, for one, am not hurrying to get the required biometric passport. I don’t intend to flee Kyiv for the more prosperous European Union.
Why? Because I really love my native city, despite President Petro Poroshenko’s monopolization of power and despite the corruption which continues unchecked at the highest levels.
I appreciate how Martin’s film has allowed us to see that in many ways people in the occupied territories don’t look at life so differently from us. But there is a difference, and the film shows this too. While many who feature in the documentary say they are tired of the war, they do nothing to bring the conflict to an end.
We, meanwhile, are not afraid to act. Here in Kyiv, we too lived for many years under Russian-backed regimes, along with the rest of Ukraine. But during the EuroMaidan Revolution of 2013-2014 we rose up against Kremlin-ally Viktor Yanukovych and ousted him from power. The result is the chaos we are living in today. Some choose to party but we keep fighting, because we know Ukraine is worth it.
