„MY DEAR THÉO” BY ALISA KOVALENKO WINS TOP PRIZE AT VISIONI DAL MONDO
Alisa Kovalenko’s feature-length documentary „My Dear Théo” has won the Best International Feature Documentary Award at the 12th edition of the Visioni dal Mondo International Documentary Festival in Milan.
Visioni dla Mondo is one of Italy’s leading documentary film festivals, dedicated to films exploring significant social, cultural, and political issues, as well as individual experiences. This year’s international competition featured nine documentaries from around the world. The jury, compromising Chloé Barreau, Martijn Te Pas, and Weronika Mliczewska, awarded the top prize to Kovalenko’s film.
The jury’s statement reads: A deeply personal yet universal film that intertwines the lightness and brutality of war through the letters of a mother, wife, soldier, and filmmaker to her young son. A work about resistance, love, camaraderie, and survival, never sentimental, carried by a restrained soundscape, a subtle score, and magnificent long takes. A film about waiting and hoping for a future of peace, justice, solidarity, and humanity.
„My Dear Théo” is Alisa Kovalenko’s personal story, serving both as a testament to motherhood and as a war documentary. Through intimate video diaries and poetic letters sent from the front to her five-year-old son, Théo, the filmmaker portrays the devastating reality of the war in Ukraine. The film connects her personal story with the broader narrative of those fighting to ensure that future generations can live in peace.