Kateryna Gornostai: Timestamp

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge“, one of many quotes from Albert Einstein that I was thinking of while watching this well made originally thought documentary from Ukraine. Take a look at the still from the film, she is cute, she concentrates on what she and her friends have been told to do. By great teachers who love their job and want to bring the kids the best of the best.

Originally thought… yes, to go to different schools, to meet pupils of different age, see how the teachers “awaken joy”, give them skills to develop creativity and of course learn. Many of the schools have been bombed but then the teacher stands out in the free next to the ruins doing an online lesson in mathematics! Ukraine is at war but teaching continues. Kateryna Gornostai paints a warm picture of the schools, she has visited, joyful, playful most of the time with space for grief as when a girl is in a class room, where there are pictures of soldiers, who died in the war. One of them is her father. A teacher takes care of her – show your father that you can read! Heartbreaking scene.

Also the routine is caught. The sirene is wailing, one of the teachers ask the classes to go to the shelter, they do, time for a break but often the teaching continues downstairs. And there is time to dress up, have your hair set in the right way for the academic graduation ceremony and for the following celebration. Fun. Joy.

BUT there is a war next door and a soldier is in the class room to the students, saying that the war might last long so one day it is your turn to be drafted. Where do you want to go in the army? And there is a sequence from a funeral with father and daughter and wife. Denys in a coffin… Can´t help it, tears come to my eyes.

It is the right choice to put scenes like that towards the end of the film, and let me and other viewers remember having experienced the beauty of dedicated teachers bringing knowledge and inspiration to the small and the bigger. And have the guts to go against the apparent bureaucracy, when a school is to rebuilt and it just takes sooo long. Why the teachers ask the contractor in a scene. We want to do our job in a good location. Of course they do!

Ukraine with support from other countries and the EU, 2025, 2 hours.

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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