Ukrainian Director Wins Top Human Rights Award at Kosovo’s DokuFest
Ukrainian filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko’s documentary My Dear Theo (With Love from the Front) has won the top prize in the Human Rights Dox category at the prestigious DokuFest international film festival in Prizren, Kosovo.
The Gaze reports this, referring to Kovalenko’s post on social media.
Announcing the news on Facebook, Kovalenko described DokuFest as a “beautiful, warm festival in a picturesque city” and thanked the jury and festival team for the honor.
During the event, the director engaged in conversations with local residents about the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo and drew parallels with the ongoing war in Ukraine.
She said she was deeply moved by how stories told by the parents of today’s youth remain vivid in their memories.
“With this film, we wanted to build a bridge of memory between us, the parents who went to the front, and our children,” Kovalenko said. “I hope that, despite the pain, these memories can also become a source of light in these dark times.”
The award marks another milestone for the Poland–Ukraine–Czech co-production, which earlier this year received a special mention at Ukraine’s Docudays UA festival “for remarkable courage in the chosen path, for generosity in sharing intimate experience, and for the ability to turn the film’s characters into friends of the audience.”
DokuFest, Kosovo’s largest documentary and short film festival, is known for highlighting works that explore pressing human rights and social justice issues.
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