Imagine yourself explaining to your child how to stay safe during a military attack while you try to remain focused on your job and enjoy life in the face of impending war. These seemingly incompatible and contradictory goals have become a daily routine in Ukraine and they're at the heart of Iryna Tsylik's award winning film, The Earth is as Blue as an Orange. Tsylik takes us inside the lives of a family living in Eastern Ukraine, in the declining coal region of Donbass, where a low-grade war has been going on since 2014. The war has outlasted more than two dozen ceasefires between Ukraine, Russia, and Russian-backed armed separatists. With more than 13,000 casualties to date and troops already in the region, Donbass is one of the many routes by which Russia could launch a larger scale invasion in the near future. WorldAffairs producer Andrew Stelzer spoke with Iryna Tsylik about her film and how her identity as a Ukrainian has been shaped by art, politics and a war that’s now been going on for almost 8 years.

If you have not already done so, please be sure to listen to Ukraine Part 1: A Young Country with an Old History, where you’ll learn about Ukraine’s Maidan revolution, which precipitated war in the Donbass.

Guests:  

Iryna Tsilyk, filmmaker and director of The Earth is Blue as an Orange

Hosts: 

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

Andrew Stelzer, producer, WorldAffairs