International Works in Progress
Carol of the Bells
Carol of the Bells is a story about three families – Ukrainian, Polish, and Jewish – and how they lived in the same house in the city of Stanislaviv in 1938-1944. When the Soviets and Nazis occupied the city the Jews and Poles were banished or executed. The Ukrainian music teacher managed to save her neighbours’ children and her own daughter at the expense of her life. The story is told through the memories of Teresa, a famous New York singer who once was the Polish girl saved by the music teacher. She recalls these events on Christmas night while waiting for the flight of Yaroslava – the Ukrainian girl with whom they survived the war together. The only thing that Teresa has from those days is the Ukrainian song – Shchedryk (the original song that Carol of the Bells is based on). Now, she dreams of singing it together with Yaroslava.
Olesya Morgunets-Isaenko, graduated Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University in 2008. Filmography: Molfar (2008), short documentary Cello (2014), narrative short film The Tale of Money (2018), fantasy, drama, 100 min The Borderline. Hrubieszow Operation (2019), documentary, 52 min
Ukrainian production company AMA VISION launched in 2018 is producing its first feature film Carol of the Bells with the support of the Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. Two more feature projects are in development. Artem Koliubaiev, the company’s CEO and co-founder, has produced three narrative features and three feature documentaries within the last four years. Four of these are created in partnership with STEWOPOL MS.