In late November and early December 2017, the Traveling Docudays UA visited some remote corners of the Kharkiv region.

The most interesting films from the global documentary library were watched by the students of Petrivske Secondary School and Petrivske Agrarian Lyceum of the Balakliya district, of the Ploske Secondary School of the Velyky Burluk district, Barvinkove Hub School No.1 and Havrylivka Educational Complex of the Barvinkove district, as well as of Oleksiyivka and Biliayivka Educational Complexes of the Pervomaisk district.

The young audience had a chance to watch the films Diary (Ukraine), Alfredo (Netherlands) and Home Games (Ukraine, France). According to Yuriy Chumak, the regional Docudays UA coordinator in the Kharkiv Region, the high school students were the most captivated by the film Home Games by the director Alisa Kovalenko.

The film depicts the fascinating life story of a 20-year-old Kyiv resident Alina, who is a professional football player. But circumstances leave her with her young brother and sister on her hands. The whole family lives in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, she needs to earn money to feed herself and the children, and women’s football in our country does not guarantee you high income. She faces the question, “How can you win the match of your life when the odds are stacked against you?”

However, the viewers expressed the same opinion everywhere — that Alina will win, because she is strong, and even when she falls, she always stands up and marches towards her goal!

By the way, in many village schools, girls also play football. For example, in the Ploske school, there is a football club for girls, and the school’s girls mini-football team won a district competition in 2015 and successfully performed at the regional competition. And the team of the Oleksiyivka Educational Complex won the 2nd and the 3rd places in the regional championship, and won the Futsal Cup. Children in other schools are also interested in women’s football.

At the same time, many young female athletes also have difficult family situations. Some of them have single parents, others have become de facto orphans because their parents abuse alcohol… But all the football players cannot imagine their lives without their favorite game.

“You will leave, and we will be discussing what we’ve seen for another month,” frankly said the school teachers, who were moved by the good films. And in case of the film Home Games, both the children and the teachers asked the festival organizers to bring them the sequel, because everybody was very concerned about Alina’s story.

It should be noted that these legal educational events happened thanks to the organizational support by the Charity Fund for Social Development in the Kharkiv Region.

Text by: Heorhiy Kobzar

Photo credit: Yuriy Chumak