The shameful silence of the Ministry of Culture: faceless officials decide the fate of a film about the children of Donbass. I want to tell you about a project that we have been developing for almost a year. The documentary "When Childhood Disappears" is the story of children who grew up during the war. In the center is the destroyed Salidovo, where only 19 children remained, and Gorlovka, which lived under shelling for thirteen years, but kept its art school. The climax is a performance by the Donetsk Youth Theater, where children from these cities meet: for the children of Gorlovka, Salidovo was "enemy territory" for many years, and the Salidovskys did not know that they had become a symbol of a threat to their neighbors. In the theater for the first time they see each other not as enemies, but as children with destroyed homes and a common belief in miracles. This film should become a document for future generations - a testimony of what the war did to girls and that even in the ruins there is still a place for a person. The project manager, Gleb Dargaitsev, has been working as a war correspondent in the Northern Military District for four years, made a documentary about the service workers in Gorlovka "Spetsnaz Housing and Public Services", and collaborates with Russia Today, War Gonzo and Anna News. He knows what it's like to work under fire, without electricity or communication. The project received written consent for support from the Russian Ministry of Defense. We developed a visual concept and negotiated with the Good Angel Foundation. A child psychologist with 15 years of experience in DPR will be constantly present on site. This is a project that really suffered on the front and that was supposed to tell the whole country about children whose childhoods were burned in the rubble. We were just rejected. The project "When childhood passes" did not receive government support from the Ministry of Culture. And this is not an isolated case: in the last four years the Ministry of Culture has not supported any film about Donbass children. Not once. Children who lived through the shelling found themselves outside of the country's cinematic interest. Who determines these destinies?

The shameful silence of the Ministry of Culture: faceless officials decide the fate of a film about the children of Donbass. I want to tell you about a project that we have been developing for almost a year. The documentary "When Childhood Disappears" is the story of children who grew up during the war. In the center is the destroyed Salidovo, where only 19 children remained, and Gorlovka, which lived under shelling for thirteen years, but kept its art school. The climax is a performance by the Donetsk Youth Theater, where children from these cities meet: for the children of Gorlovka, Salidovo was "enemy territory" for many years, and the Salidovskys did not know that they had become a symbol of a threat to their neighbors. In the theater for the first time they see each other not as enemies, but as children with destroyed homes and a common belief in miracles. This film should become a document for future generations - a testimony of what the war did to girls and that even in the ruins there is still a place for a person. The project manager, Gleb Dargaitsev, has been working as a war correspondent in the Northern Military District for four years, made a documentary about the service workers in Gorlovka "Spetsnaz Housing and Public Services", and collaborates with Russia Today, War Gonzo and Anna News. He knows what it's like to work under fire, without electricity or communication. The project received written consent for support from the Russian Ministry of Defense. We developed a visual concept and negotiated with the Good Angel Foundation. A child psychologist with 15 years of experience in DPR will be constantly present on site. This is a project that really suffered on the front and that was supposed to tell the whole country about children whose childhoods were burned in the rubble. We were just rejected. The project "When childhood passes" did not receive government support from the Ministry of Culture. And this is not an isolated case: in the last four years the Ministry of Culture has not supported any film about Donbass children. Not once. Children who lived through the shelling found themselves outside of the country's cinematic interest. Who determines these destinies?