ALOSHA is an experimental-documentary short film that tells us about the life of Oleksiy Andrukhnenko, a young man from Crimea son of a russian-ukrainian relationship. Torn between the two identities and far from his land he lives now in Alcázar de San Juan, one of the spanish towns most affected by the global COVID pandemic. His way of life consists of an onion field, his motorbike and the upkeeping of his identity in a social circle that refers to him as a nationality he had to adopt in 2014 with the occupation of Crimea.
WARNING: This short film was recorded in 2020, previous to the Donbass conflict escalation. Views on the matter are our own and this project has no relation with any present political view.
ENGLISH SCRIPT
1. Sometimes I miss Ukraine (PAUSE) Sometimes I miss Russia
2. I miss the snow, the cold mornings, the smell of alcohol on my pillow. (PAUSE) The forest.
3. I own a champagne colored bmw.
4. My car is my ticket from the plains to the snowy steppe. I drive thousands of kilometers to Ukraine with my father. (PAUSE) He says it is my own rocket. He likes to call it that because he photographed space ships during his military service at the Baikonur cosmodrome.
5. When my father met my mother he stopped taking pictures of rockets to immortalize her. (PAUSE) His muse. (PAUSE) My mother was a professional handball player. She played with the Ukrainian national team until my sister was born.
6. Have you ever thought that a dog won the race to reach space? (PAUSE) I imagine those old rockets taking off. (PAUSE) How safe must the spectator feel from the distance, waiting to take the picture. (PAUSE) How much excitement must the pilot feel meanwhile tons of fuel burn every second under his ass. (PAUSE) Doubting if it will be his end, or his exit from this planet.
7. Whenever I think too much I sit down and listen to the barley moving (PAUSE) There I leave my bad thoughts
8. People say Putin has got a machine that controls the rain (PAUSE) On Machado’s lands it always rains at the same hour
9. Don Quixote had Rocinante, i have got my Betty. (PAUSE) When you deconstruct something you realize some parts are not necessary for everything to work.
10. I see people panic because of the pandemic, because of a faceless danger that you can’t see coming and takes you away from your loved ones. (PAUSE) I escaped from a war without fame, from mafias that steal your business and your effort, from a broken family. (PAUSE) I have no more fear left for this virus.
11. Arguing with the police twice a day to get to work (PAUSE) Breaking my own record on the dirt roads (PAUSE) Checking that no one has stolen from us during the night
12. Listening to my neighbor brag about his potatoes and criticize our onions (PAUSE) Checking that there are no snakes hiding
13. I don’t worry about barriers separating me from my coworkers (PAUSE) Here I don’t need masks or gel (PAUSE) Here shaking out the dust and rinsing your hands is enough (PAUSE) Who would have thought that an onion field could be an oasis?
14. I miss the cold weather, feeling my fingers numb because I lost my gloves. (PAUSE) On our fishing mornings the freezing steel of the bucket hurt my hand and the smell of bait made me lose my appetite.
15. On boring days I wished for my Grandfather to take me hunting. (PAUSE) I handed out cartridges for him, expecting that he would let me shoot (PAUSE) ‘Put your face away from the sight’ He said, ‘Press the trigger slowly’ He said. (PAUSE) But I didn’t listen (PAUSE) I came back home with snow pressed against my eye, my ears ringing and a huge stupid smile on my face.
16. I am now accustomed to the smell of dust, the roughness of things and the callouses on my hands (PAUSE) At first it was difficult to breathe, the red dirt suspended in the air makes it thicker.
17. The lack of humidity leaves you with parched lips, salty eyes and cracked skin. (PAUSE) I protect myself from the sun, which streaks unceasingly (PAUSE) And i fear the hail, scarce but catastrophic.
18. I spent 6 years away from my parents, waiting next to my sister to be able to join them in the sunny land where they sent pictures from. (PAUSE) I felt envy, thinking they could go swimming all year long (PAUSE) Later I understood that the only sea they visited was the plastic sea where they worked.
19 Now I feel reassured that my friends will stay, or rather, that I will stay with them. (PAUSE) Even if the world stops our field will always stay where it is.
20. Even if people stop liking onion I can still cultivate something else (PAUSE) Our field is our sustenance, our refuge
