Director: Heilika Pikkov
Estonia, 2023
Duration: 23 minutes
Language: In Ukrainian, English, Russian with English subtitles
Home. Your home. Your place. Your memories. Your belongings. In the blink of eye, it’s gone. Heilika Pikkov’s What Would You Take? tells the stories of 12 people from Ukraine who were suddenly forced to leave their homes, taking only the bare essentials and a cherished belonging that reflects their life. The film is part of an exhibition project by photographer Kaupo Kikkas and British curator Frances Stonor Saunders. In December 2022, they traveled together through Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland to Ukraine. In each country, they met Ukrainian war refugees whom Kaupo photographed, Frances interviewed, and Heilika filmed. A total of 12 powerful stories were captured, resulting in an exhibition, a collection of essays, and a short film, which will be screened at the European Film Weeks in Helsinki in 2024.
Heilika Pikkov is a documentary filmmaker and internationally well-known curator and cultural manager from Estonia. She studied film and television directing at Tallinn University and spent a semester at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. She has directed several documentaries, including Flowers from the Mount of Olives (2013), which had great success in Estonian cinemas and had its international premiere at Locarno Film Festival, and My Flesh and Blood (2018), which won Best Short Film of the Year at the Estonian Film and Television Awards.
The film is part of the annual European Film Weeks 2024 organized by European Commission Representation in Finland. Free entry.
Full program of the festival: 4.–13.10. European Film Weeks – Eurooppalaisen elokuvan viikot (europa.eu)