Sunflower Field
Under the shadowy threat of war, a young Ukrainian girl awaits a call from her father. As she waits, the day turns into night and she sinks into various dreamscapes from which she must find her way home.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Polina Buchak
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
This short is a response to what is happening back home. I wrote the first script of Sunflower Field when I was home in Kyiv - that was January 2022. All of our family conversations were about a hypothetical war and I was struggling to grasp what it all meant. It’s important to note that Ukraine has been fighting to protect its independence and all of its territories since 2014 - when Russia annexed Crimea and illegally occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions. So war as a concept wasn’t new to us. However, we were watching the news that was circulating about how Russia accumulated about 100,000 tanks outside our borders. For context, my family is from Chernihiv - that’s a city about 50 miles away from the northern border with Russia. While stewing in that environment, I immediately thought about children, because I couldn’t begin to understand how to explain and shield them from this nightmare. Making this short film was a way for me to try to scream back at the world that they have to pay attention and act now - hoping to avoid the atrocities that come with full-scale invasions. So what I ended up with is a story about a young girl who waits for a phone call from her dad, but as she waits she falls into dreamscapes from which she must find her way home.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
While the story in our short is set in Ukraine, the message about children having agency and the ability to connect with the complexities of the world is universal. People from all walks of life have attended our screening and all found moments of connection to the emotional journey that our little girl goes through. The film is a call to action for us to do whatever it takes to make changes in our world so that our children stop exchanging their childhoods in order for us to learn what bravery looks like.
Another reason for you to watch the short is to see what our team was able to achieve across 3 different time zones. First and foremost this animation would not be possible without my dear friend and phenomenal animator Mulan Fu. We’ve known each other as creators since our first days of film school at NYU and have been collaborators ever since. At the time of production, she was in Shanghai and I was assembling each scene she would send me in New York. At the same time, our incredible sound designer Serhii Avdieiev was transforming the animation through sound design in Kyiv - working through electricity outages and air sirens. His sound design brought in soundscapes of Ukrainian nature and through the beautiful music of Maryna Krut (one of Ukraine’s prominent musical voices), we were able to share a piece of Ukraine with our audiences.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The personal and universal themes in this short walk hand in hand. I chose to set the story in Ukraine because this is a way for me to continue advocating for the support of my country and continue these conversations with the public. This is incredibly important now as Ukraine is no longer making headlines in the news cycle. However, the feelings that connect with the audience are very familiar to anyone who comes from a country that was forced to face war.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
When I wrote the first draft of Sunflower Field, it was a story about a “what if” situation - what would the world of a child look like if war broke out outside their home? After February 24, 2022, I was forced to rewrite the script to tell the story of “what’s happening now”. What inspired me to write the first draft was the fact that I had a nightmare and saw several scenes that I instantly knew would work well in an animated story. However, whatever I thought I just envisioned was actually happening in Ukraine. So I had to make sure that our short film reflected that and our team had to act fast. We put the animation together in 9 months across 3 time zones and then took it on a festival circuit.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The feedback has been incredibly warm all around! We won Best Short Animation at the Woodstock Film Festival (which qualified us for the Oscars 2024) and won the Audience Award at NFFTY which speaks volumes about the impact of the short on its own. We had a wonderful World Premiere at Cleveland International Film Festival, and after that were lucky to travel to Seattle, Reno, Missoula, Newport Beach, Montclair, Pittsburgh, Boston, and even internationally to Lithuania, Brazil, and Toronto. Our next stop is in Vail, Colorado on December 9th!
Another part of our festival journey is connecting with Ukrainian communities. In addition to festival screenings, we connected with Ukrainian schools to organize screening activities with their students. In Parma, we screened for about 100 students ranging from 1st grade to seniors and the response varied from kids who were simply excited to learn how to make animations to older ones who were expressing how moved they were by the story. In Newport Beach (Dana Point to be exact), we had a smaller group of kids. However, the difference was that the majority of the children in their school fled the full-scale invasion 2 years ago and are making a home out of their new neighborhood. For them, I took a frame out of the introduction scene and asked the kids to color it on their own - their only prompt was to “introduce me to your town”. The drawings that I got from them spoke louder than words ever can. In fact, they reconfirmed that it’s not only the war that is happening now that we are dealing with - it’s yet another traumatized generation of Ukrainians that we will need to help.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
I’ve been afraid to show this animation to young children, because I was worried that the subject matter would bring back hurt feelings. However, they turned out to be far more enthusiastic and in fact, were willing to share their stories - whether by just telling me or communicating through their art. That means the world to me.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
This is an incredible platform that highlights so many wonderful filmmakers and is definitely a resource to find more stories. My hope is for the short to find wider audiences and connect with new viewers!
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
As we are wrapping up our festival journey, we are looking for more opportunities to screen the short and do community events in partnership with organizations that work with children. I want the animation to continue advocating for Ukrainian children and continue the conversation around their safety. I also want it to find its home with distributors or an online platform as well as speak with journalists that would help amplify the film’s message.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
The immediate focus for me is to get Sunflower Field to the finish line of our festival journey and secure distribution that will make the film accessible to everyone. I’m also in pre-production for a few other projects - one of which turns the camera lens on my family to tell the story of how my grandparents ended up in Nigeria. Our animator Mulan Fu is working on her next short that’s a personal story currently titled Just One Peek. For her, Sunflower Field also ignited the excitement of collaborating with trusty creative partners, and she hopes to participate in a project like that again in the future.
Interview: December 2023
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Sunflower Field
Under the shadowy threat of war, a young Ukrainian girl awaits a call from her father. As she waits, the day turns into night and she sinks into various dreamscapes from which she must find her way home.
Length: 4:23
Director: Polina Buchak
Producer: Polina Buchak, Camila Grimaldi
Writer: Polina Buchak
About the writer, director and producer:
Born in Ukraine and raised in Nigeria, POLINA BUCHAK is an award-winning New York-based filmmaker who focuses on diverse and inclusive storytelling by blending new technologies into traditional mediums.
CAMILA GRIMALDI (she/her) is an Argentine-American director, producer, and writer based in Brooklyn with a focus on telling intimate stories through a variety of mediums and helping others do the same.
Key cast: Voice Talent: Katia Chapin, Polina Buchak
Looking for: distributors, journalists
Facebook: Polina Buchak (Поліна Бучак)
Twitter: @ms_buchak
Instagram: @ms_buchak
Hashtags used: #SunflowerFieldFilm #SunflowerFieldShort
Website: www.polinabuchak.com/sunflowerfield
Other: IMDb
Made in association with: honto88, Ser Nocturna
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?
Vail Film Festival on December 9th