OMELKO`S HOUSE OR GUESTS FROM KHARKIV

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OMELKO`S HOUSE OR GUESTS FROM KHARKIV

By Halyna LAVRINETS

Female director - Development 2025

Nelia, a lawyer who downshifted to the Poltava region, opens a museum. The war presents her with a new challenge - to adopt an injured child, now they have to coexist in the same space - a museum of the past and an orphan who needs to be given a future.

- Year of production
- 2025
- Genres
- Female director, First film, Documentary
- Countries
- UKRAINE, SLOVAKIA
- Languages
- UKRANIAN
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 80 mn
- Director(s)
- Halyna LAVRINETS
- Writer(s)
- Halyna LAVRINETS
- Producer(s)
- Alexandra BRATYSHCHENKO (ELERON PICTURES)
- Synopsis
- Nelia, a 40-year-old cultural activist, lives in the village of Kozubivka in the Poltava Region. She is developing her museum manor, “Omelko’s House”, dedicated to the rural dialect, traditions, and life.
  Nelia’s 33-year-old husband, Sashko, has taken over household duties. The couple goes on expeditions to abandoned villages and garbage dumps, where they find items of traditional rural life. The spouses have children from previous marriages; they do not plan to have a child together. They focus on Nelia’s mission: to research and promote local traditions that were almost destroyed during the Soviet era.
  Because of the war in Ukraine, millions of people have to leave their homes. A group of people from Kharkiv, fleeing from constant shelling, find shelter in Kozubivka. Nelia and Sashko accommodate them in the museum. Nelia has to move the exhibits to her own house.
  Nelia and Sashko decide to become foster parents in order to give at least one child a chance for a normal childhood.
  A commission inspects the house to check the conditions in which the child will live. The commission requires enlarging the living space: Nelia needs to take the exhibits away.
  At the school for foster parents, Nelia and Sashko meet another married couple. Nelia and Sashko go to another village to visit them. They meet their 13-year-old son Dima, who has similar interests as Nelia. With a metal detector, Dima finds and collects items of rural life. Dima has never been to a museum in his life.
  In the spring, a foster child arrives at Nelia and Sashko. Nelia stops working at the museum, taking care of the child. She tries to resume expeditions, involves Dima, and teaches him to evaluate exhibits.
  Nelia has no place to store exhibits; humidity and time are destroying them. Sasha lacks attention and help from Nelia. She tries to balance family and work and draws attention to the problems of small home museums.
- Partners & financing
- The project was supported by a grant from Netflix and Ukrainian Film Academy. We already have Slovak co-producer - Peter Kerekes on our board.
  The first presentation of the project was at the EFM during the Berlinale. The next stations for the project will be DOC LAB POLAND START and EURODOC.
- Production schedule
- Currently, the project is in the development stage. The shooting period is planned for August 2023 - April 2024, with the completion of work on the post-production of the film - by the end of 2024. For the full implementation of the creative idea, further searches for funding are planned, including abroad, for the editing and toning period and promotion of the film.
- Beginning of shooting
- Aug 01, 2023
- End of shooting
- Apr 30, 2024