Let’s not forget that...
All humans strive for: education, home,
fulfilling work, and of course LOVE...
The only thing that makes them different
is how their needs are met!
Who We Are
We have been working as a team since 2015 when we started working on a documentary about the first generation born after the Chernobyl disaster.
This project became the feature documentary EVERYTHING WILL NOT BE FINE, which premiered at IDFA, the world’s biggest documentary film festival in 2020 and won several international awards including Best Ukrainian film at the Odesa film festival in the same year.
The experience of working on this film and meeting and befriending people with disabilities in Ukraine and Belarus strengthens our resolve to create stories that focus on the issues faced by vulnerable people.
Our mission is not only to make films about the difficulties of those who are overlooked by society but also to create stories about their hopes and dreams and provide social activists with tools that will contribute to the goal of turning these dreams into reality.
Helena Maksyom:
Graduate with honors from The National Aviation University in Kyiv, master’s degree “Ecology and Environmental protection”. Worked as a project manager, journalist, translator, writer, and film director. Her award winning feature documentary debut as a director with EVERYTHING WILL NOT BE FINE has fostered a passion for telling personal stories from a thoughtful and empathetic angle.
In 2021 she directed and edited several short films on disability issues in Ukraine and is currently developing a new feature, a character driven portrait of a children’s rights activist in Ukraine.
Adrian Pîrvu:
Graduate of The National University of Film and Drama in Bucharest, master’s degree in film production. Has directed and produced several short films and documentaries. After teaching English in China for a year, worked as a video producer for an NGO concerned with disabilities.
With the debut documentary EVERYTHING WILL NOT BE FINE, he also was a co-producer. After working as a co-director and sound engineer for a series of short films with Helena Maksyom in 2021, he will produce her next film, THE GRACIOUS HOOLIGAN.
our films
The girl in the old people's house
In a big gloomy building hidden away from society Irina lives. She is 27 years old, has a disability, and never in her life experienced real love.
In Ukraine, orphans with disabilities who turn 18 and have no family member to care for them, are sent directly to homes for the elderly where they live for the rest of their lives.
For 9 years Iryna has been looking for a chance to run away. But where and how could she go? Her huge wheelchair is quite complicated to navigate and the gates of the Institution are closed and have guards keeping an eye on them.
In her dreams Irina lives a beautiful life – she talks to different people, goes to the cinema, gets her first kiss, but when she opens her eyes she often cries…because her reality is starkly different.
We spent 2 days with Irina going around the Institution where old people mixed with young. Will hear Irina’s life story and her hopes for a different future.
We want to show a young life broken by a heartless system and question why this system exists.
Home for Yulya
Why can’t a smart, university-educated, cheerful, and hard-working young woman enjoy the benefits of society?
The fact that she happens to use a wheelchair is definitely a challenge but not an impossible barrier.
For many people with disabilities in Ukraine, the access to a fulfilled life is not because of their lack of useful skills and boundless dreams but rather because the country does not consider it a priority to create the necessary conditions for the people to be able to effectively make a contribution to their nation’s improvement.
Yulya is a 33-year-old woman who has glass bone disease and is an activist for accessible housing and spaces for people with disabilities. She lives with her family in an apartment block built in the 70s and she relies on her father to help her go out.
For 6 years she has been petitioning authorities for an accessible home.
Cosmocamp
Every year for the past 14 years, the Ukrainian NGO See with the Heart organizes a one-month-long summer camp for over 100 children with complex disorders. 
Its goal is to create a special safe and nurturing space where they can play, learn, interact with regular kids and make friends.
The children are between 3 and 18 and their disabilities vary from being on the autism spectrum to DCP and severe immobility. All of them are taken care of and entertained by an incredibly dedicated team of volunteers. It’s a big and beautiful tribe made out of children who are seldom seen on the streets of Ukraine.
Our short documentary is an observational piece of this camp with the children, volunteers, and parents as a collective character representing an alternative to the current special care system in Ukraine.