Lubomir Dankov

First of all, tell our audience who you are.

I was born and live in Bulgaria. 35 years ago, I studied at Bulgarian Institute of Chemical Technology. I had plans to do science, more precisely physical chemistry. Then the changes happened - our bloc lost the first cold war, we were "transferred" under Western influence. Science was one of the first things to suffer greatly after this change, and opportunities for work and development were severely reduced. I had to find ways to support myself through unskilled work. About 12 years ago, I started a humble public activity in the field of human rights. In short, that's it.


When did you start making movies and why?

The Donbass Children is my first film. So, I don't know if I've started, we'll have to see if I will continue. It's not that I don't want to - on the contrary, but it turns out that on all the topics that concern me, I have a position diametrically opposed to that of the mainstream, and this deprives me of both funding and distribution. Making documentaries that only have access to film festivals and social media by paying for the pleasure of making them is a bit of a weird thing to do, also very expensive. The problem is that I can't afford to do this, I don't have those resources. I'm not giving up, I firmly intend to make one or two more films about the war in Ukraine, I'm also working on another project in parallel, but to continue I need to find like-minded people for a team. Some things I don't do well - finding funding and distribution mostly.

And why did I make this first film... I happened to be in Ukraine in 2016, when the armed conflict was entering its third year. I realized that what happened there has nothing to do with how is presented in the media in the so-called "democratic world". Western propaganda had created a parallel world, which is still developing now. A war in the center of Europe, which instead of finding for a way to immediately end it, is being fueled on all fronts, including the information one, is something extremely serious, and I received a strong push to get involved on the right side.

I started an information project; the idea was to present all points of view on the conflict. I did a series of interviews with people on both sides of the line, but the project didn't get much traction. Then I decided to try a documentary. I shot the materials for it at the end of 2018 and at the beginning of 2019.

You know, when one room in the house is on fire and the fire is left and not put out, sooner or later, the fire will engulf the whole house, and maybe the whole village. Many people in our country and in other countries tried to oppose the mainstream, to show the truth about the conflict in Ukraine and to warn about the dangers if a lasting solution is not found for it - the dangers for both Ukraine and Europe. The creation of this film was part of those efforts, which unfortunately came to nothing.

How can you explain that these efforts you speak of have been fruitless?

You know, during so-called communism, we didn't have much freedom of speech. At that time, I thought that in the "free world" things were different, that there the truth was placed on a pedestal and journalists fought daily for it. I have no idea what it was like then, but what I see now is terrifying. It's gotten worse since then. The lies, the manipulations, the imposition of parallel realities - this is done more and more successfully. Yes, the methods are different, now the reliance is not so much on direct repression as on creating an environment with self-censorship and silencing of "inconvenient truths". Dissidents with the mainstream are simply pushed into a corner and deprived of a platform, leaving an illusion of freedom within small, encapsulated societies communicating via the Internet.

The main guilt for the fact that the armed conflict in Ukraine was not stopped during these eight years, when it was still localized in a part of the Donbass, lies with the mainstream and popular media in Europe. They created an absolutely false image of this war in European societies. And this imposed false reality is the comfort zone for politicians who have been given the freedom to serve the interest of the "hawks" and work against peace and for a large-scale war.

Yes, I know, you can say that Russia attacked Ukraine and it is not the fault of the European media... But that is how things look only in the parallel world created by the same media. The conflict in Ukraine is a very long topic, but I will try to quickly cover only a few things.

In February 2015, the "Minsk-2" agreement was signed. It was approved by the UN Security Council and was expected to regulate the conflict in short order. The guarantors for Ukraine in this agreement were the most influential countries in the European Union - France and Germany, and the guarantor for the republics that broke away from Ukraine was Russia. The idea of ​​this agreement was for Ukraine to change its Constitution and accept back the two republics - DPR and LPR on a federal basis. A deadline for amending the Constitution was set - until the end of 2015. Ukraine did not fulfil anything of this agreement - neither changed its Constitution, nor resumed the payment of social benefits and pensions in the conflict zone, did not stop shelling and attempts to shorten the "grey zone", etc. etc. But instead of being penalized for this, Ukraine was systematically encouraged. Many billions poured into the country - both from the EU and the USA. The fragile truce and transformation of the war into a positional phase was used to build a strong army in Ukraine to take back the seceded territories by force.

The military trainings that Russia has been conducting near the borders of Ukraine since the fall of 2021 were warnings not to go down this road. But Ukraine did not listen. In fact, the offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces, with serious military and financial support from the West, began days before Russia's intervention. People in Donetsk and Luhansk say that the situation these days was worse than at the beginning of the armed conflict - in 2014.

Ukraine's dependent politicians have allowed the country to become a battleground for conflict between the West and Russia. In this conflict, Ukraine is indeed a victim, but not so much of Russia as of the West, for whom it is profitable to fight with foreign hands and on foreign territory.

All that is happening now in Ukraine would not have happened if the societies of Europe knew the truth about the civil war in the country from 2014 to the beginning of 2022 - if they knew the reasons for the conflict, the reasons for the development of the conflict into an armed one, if they knew the truth about the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces in Eastern Ukraine. The politicians who prepared this war would not even think of directing something like this because they would not get support and they would be thrown out of politics.


Do you have any idea how this war could be stopped now?

Now, after Russia's intervention and after the huge losses suffered by both sides, it becomes extremely difficult. What could help is to return to the real world of information warfare in Europe. The people of Europe must understand the whole truth about this conflict and realize that Europe must be a buffer and a brake on the conflict between the US and Russia, and not an ally of the militaristic circles in the US in an aggressive policy where human life has no value. If that happens, there is a chance for lasting peace. If it does not happen, there is a danger that the war will go far beyond the borders of Ukraine.

There are no author's comments and analyses in your film, these problems you talk about are not presented in it. Why?

This film is aimed at the western audience. This viewer is poisoned by propaganda and would hardly allow the truth to come to him. Whatever I tell him, if it contradicts his ideas planted by propaganda, he will perceive it as "Kremlin propaganda and lies." Therefore, I decided in this first film, to help the viewer see a part of the truth about the war on the territory of Ukraine through my lens, without my suggestions. To hear the people who have suffered from this war and if the viewer has resistance forces, to think independently and try to get to the truth on their own.


We would like to know a little more about this project. Could you tell us about the process? Did you have any problems during the shoot?

The main problem was this: after the outbreak of the armed conflict many journalists came to Donbas, but too many of them wrote materials "on order" that had nothing to do with reality. This greatly demotivates people there, and a journalist or filmmaker cannot count on any enthusiasm for cooperation.



On my second visit to Donetsk, I already knew what I wanted to do, but I didn't have access to the people I needed for the film, I didn't know how to find them. It was only after my fourth visit that I was put in touch with a local human rights activist who gave me contacts and recommended people who had suffered from the war and agreed to speak on camera.

If the material I filmed became a film the credit was not mine but entirely to Zina Nacheva - a teacher at Bulgarian Academy of Theatre and Film Art. She edited the film and had a big hand in choosing the materials used. I had the good fortune to meet her through my decision to learn to edit the interviews I was doing myself.


How long did it take from the initial idea to the finished project? Is it self-financed? If so, what budget did you have?

If we talk about the realization of the film, I filmed the materials during two visits to Donbas - in October 2018 and April 2019. The film was completed in September 2019. But to this should probably be added my several visits to both sides of the line in the two years before, studying the conflict and making contacts.

All the expenses of the film were made with my personal funds. If we count only my two visits when I filmed the materials for it, plus the costs of its preparation, the budget comes to under 5,000 euros. But as I already mentioned, I had quite a lot of visits before that, so the amount becomes quite a bit more with them.


Normally independent filmmakers must take care of many things, such as locating, directing, producing, and even editing or distributing. Can you tell me a little more what you did within the project?

In this film, in addition to the director, I am also one of the cameramen, as a second cameraman was involved a local girl - Tanya, who did a great job. I also tried to do something about the distribution of the film, but there I underwent a real disaster. Now from time to time I run paid ads on social networks, so the film reaches a modest audience.

Tell me one thing you like about this project and one thing you don't like.

I like that my idea was realized as I imagined it. I don't like that the film reached few people. To what extent the latter is my fault is still to be seen. I do not know now. I also don't like the fact that the film didn't fulfil its purpose and failed to create a mood to end the conflict before it was expanded this year. It may have been an overly optimistic and unrealistic task, but it was worth a try.

And now a little about your personal tastes. Tell me your favorite directors. And your three favorite movies?

If we talk about a director of feature films, the first ones that come to mind are Reinhard Hauff (Germany) and Milos Forman. I will not tell you the names of Bulgarian directors, they will not tell you anything. For movies...Hauff's Knife in the Head and Foreman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. And a Russian one - The Cold Summer of 1953... this title hardly tells you anything.

Do you see yourself making movies in 10 years?


If we're talking about art or feature films... no, not a chance. In our country things are not so easy, I even have no idea how they happen. Cinema is too expensive art. If we're talking about a documentary... I don't know, I doubt it. As I said before, I have serious differences with the mainstream, and making films that will be seen by a few thousand people on social networks after spending a lot of effort and money, because my access to the big media is blocked, is a strange thing to do. Actually, I would, but if I had the means. My only film so far for me was part of a cause, I don't see myself as a filmmaker.

What experience have you had with film festivals? Where do you think they should improve?

As of now, my film has received awards from 106 international festivals. Most awards are from festivals in the US and EU countries.

For me, an award in a festival is a kind of certificate of film quality. Then, this "certificate" could possibly help distribute the film. And participation in festivals is one way for the film to reach an audience.

Unfortunately, I couldn't attend all the festivals where the film was selected, I wouldn't even go to one, it's too big an expense for me, I can't afford it. For me, participation was all about submitting the film and then getting a result from the participation. This does not give many opportunities to get an idea of the films that are presented at the festivals, such an opportunity was only available at a few online festivals.

Regarding what could be improved about festivals... It is clear to me that if a festival aims to reach a lot of people and promote the selected films, it is quite an expensive task and the participation fees cannot cover the necessary costs only for advertising, for example. And finding sponsors is related to the creation of dependencies, in which the festival will no longer be independent, and the results of the festival will not reflect the qualities of the films, but of their "political correctness", which is seen in many festivals that have gained popularity. I don't like festivals where the "gender identity" of the authors or artists, the color of their skin, etc. is important. These festivals become propaganda machines in which cinema is relegated to the background. So, I can't give recommendations to festivals, I know that they also have many problems that I am not familiar with in detail.