Road of a Migrant

The film follows an annual 10-day- long walking Pilgrimage dedicated to and organized by Ukrainian labour migrants and their families. During 260 km of walk, the Pilgrims spread the word of their experiences abroad and try to reconnect with their families, estranged through the years of migration. They fight the guilt and the sense of blame for migration, and, against the evermore crumbling trust in the Ukrainian state, attempt to organize through the only existing for them institution, the Church. Τhe film speaks of the controversial rise of the Church institution in a post-soviet state, as a force preoccupied not only with the spiritual, but also with the social and the political.

Olena Fedyuk

Olena Fedyuk, was born in Ukraine. In the last 20 years, she has been moving around Europe pursuing her professional interest – research in gendered migration flows, migrant labour, and the moral economy of migration. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology but since 2012, she’s turned to film as a medium for both research and outreach, and a way to grasp humour and contradictions of migration stories. Her films are not about migration per se but about people who have embarked on complicated life journeys, both emotionally and geographically.