SYNOPSIS
"Expedition 49", a teen-spirit adventure film about five Tom Sawyers, stuck in the social and industrial collapse of Donbas: the largest mining region in Europe, plagued by a never-ending war.
Aged around 15, Andriy, Lisa, Ruslan, Lera and Ilya live near Zolote, a small frontline town. Bombs keep falling, but new dangers are looming: factories are closing, coal mines get flooded and parents loose their jobs.
Andriy wanted to be a miner, like his dad who now pumps water out of the bombed pits, near the trenches. Obsessed by his passion for old Soviet motorbikes, Andriy smuggles cables, repairs everything and sees himself as Elon Musk!
Ruslan struggles to exist in the eyes of his father, an ex-cop who went down to the mine and makes a fool of his son. Ruslan is a bad rapper, but commenting Counter Strike online, he earns the salary his dad doesn’t get.
Delicate Ilya wants to be an actor. Lera complains that all cute guys have gone. On weekends, she dances wild to Billie Eilish in the bomb shelter. Lisa’s boyfriend might be enrolled in the enemy’s ranks.
Everything’s messed up. Until one day, a voice echoes in the radio. An old adventurer wants to bring kids from the war zone to the Himalayas: a therapy to heal their traumas and break the walls around them.
Our "Donbas 5" prepare months over the coal pits to climb the highest mountain and find some answers. Is there a way out to the world outside? Are they brave enough to chase for new horizons? Can you enlighten your life, when you grew up in the most desolate place?
"Expedition 49": an upbeat chronicle of the last golden hours of childhood, capturing this huge desire of freedom that burns inside every teenager. An ode to the sons of the last miners, to the children of the working-class, who’re reinventing themselves.
"Expedition 49", a teen-spirit adventure film about five Tom Sawyers, stuck in the social and industrial collapse of Donbas: the largest mining region in Europe, plagued by a never-ending war.
Aged around 15, Andriy, Lisa, Ruslan, Lera and Ilya live near Zolote, a small frontline town. Bombs keep falling, but new dangers are looming: factories are closing, coal mines get flooded and parents loose their jobs.
Andriy wanted to be a miner, like his dad who now pumps water out of the bombed pits, near the trenches. Obsessed by his passion for old Soviet motorbikes, Andriy smuggles cables, repairs everything and sees himself as Elon Musk!
Ruslan struggles to exist in the eyes of his father, an ex-cop who went down to the mine and makes a fool of his son. Ruslan is a bad rapper, but commenting Counter Strike online, he earns the salary his dad doesn’t get.
Delicate Ilya wants to be an actor. Lera complains that all cute guys have gone. On weekends, she dances wild to Billie Eilish in the bomb shelter. Lisa’s boyfriend might be enrolled in the enemy’s ranks.
Everything’s messed up. Until one day, a voice echoes in the radio. An old adventurer wants to bring kids from the war zone to the Himalayas: a therapy to heal their traumas and break the walls around them.
Our "Donbas 5" prepare months over the coal pits to climb the highest mountain and find some answers. Is there a way out to the world outside? Are they brave enough to chase for new horizons? Can you enlighten your life, when you grew up in the most desolate place?
"Expedition 49": an upbeat chronicle of the last golden hours of childhood, capturing this huge desire of freedom that burns inside every teenager. An ode to the sons of the last miners, to the children of the working-class, who’re reinventing themselves.