BACKGROUND

It all started in the summer of 2006 when one of the filmmakers Olha, went back to her hometown in Ukraine. She had a digital camcorder and an interest in hearing people's stories. Upon researching the history of her town Lviv, she found out that during the Nazi and Soviet occupation between 1939 and 1947, more than 80% of the people who were living in her hometown were completely wiped out. The fate of the rest of Galicia or Halychyna was not much different.

From the beginning of the century onwards, Galicia's population was approximately composed of three major ethnic groups: Poles, Jews and Ukrainians. During the war, thousands of people from those groups were used and manipulated by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that benefited from instigating ethnic and religious conflicts. Horrible crimes were committed. Entire villages and towns were destroyed and thousands of people from all sides were massacred because of their faith or their ethnic background.

Today, more than 60 years later, the memories are still vivid and the pain is so deep that no one wants to talk about what happened on all three accounts. The stereotypes that were born in the past are still very much present in today's society, preventing both healing and reconciliation. It is time to bring change. It is time to engage in a constrictive dialogue and reach out to each other.

While traveling throughout what is now Western Ukraine, the filmmakers were able to gather extraordinary stories that expose another facet of that atrocious war. Amongst the atrocities of the Second World War, there were people who had the courage and the strength to risk their lives in order to reach out to other people who were more in need, even if it would include their enemies. There were ordinary people who showed such compassion and heroism in the face of oppression that they should not be forgotten.

Their stories remain a source of inspiration to us. They remind us that kindness and integrity are possible, even under the worst circumstances and that human beings are fundamentally the same regardless of their race, ethnicity or religion. The filmmakers believe that history should always be remembered in order for it never to be repeated. They also believe they owe the ordinary people who turned into extraordinary heroes the promise to remember their deeds and tell their stories.