Documentary ’92

Directed by: Mariia Ponomarova
Produced by: Labyrint Film, Rogier Kramer
Edited by: Annelotte Medema
Cinematography: Sveta Aparina, Niels van Koevorden, Lola Mooij
Music: Mykyta Moiseiev
Co-production: TABOR Production, HUMAN, MDR
Fund: Netherlands Film Fund, European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films, Amarte Foundation
Distribution: Cinema Delicatessen
Sales agent: CAT&Docs

Selected for Hot Docs Filmfestival 2024
Part of the Ex Oriente Film training program, DOK Leipzig Co-Pro Market and the dok.incubator workshop 2023.

A team of ageing Ukrainian cheerleaders hold on to their friendship as each navigates the trauma of war in her own way. 

When Russia began bombing the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 2022, every resident had to decide whether to stay or evacuate. For the members of the Nice Ladies—the ages 50-and-up women’s cheerleading squad—those decisions also had consequences for the team: Sveta fled to the Netherlands with her family; captain Valia and coach Nadia stayed behind. Relying on their individual training routines and sporadic phone calls to cope with daily traumas, each of these women fights to stay sane. But as the ladies press onwards to survive at home and abroad, war’s inevitable and more insidious twin weapons—resentment and survivor’s guilt—unleash unexpected, personal wounds. Witness a remarkable battle for sisterhood emerge in this uniquely inspiring, ongoing war story.