Some spaces begin with crumbling walls and boxes of equipment stacked in a corner. That is what the future cinema hall at a rehabilitation center looked like at the beginning of last year: no wiring, plaster, or seats — but with a clear understanding of why it was needed and who it was for.

People returning from the front and undergoing rehabilitation need a place where they can step out of the hospital routine for an hour or two — sit together, watch a film, discuss it, or simply spend time together not as patients, but as viewers.

That is why the Travelling Docudays UA Festival and the Pryntsyp Nadii Charitable Foundation launched a fundraiser. Together, the festival’s audiences raised UAH 59,613.

This was a fundraiser with a clear purpose: every hryvnia went toward specific needs — electrical wiring, plastering, and later, fitting out the space itself for screenings. The Principle of Hope Charitable Foundation coordinated the needs with the medical unit’s management and paid for the work, while the medical unit’s administration organized the renovation.

The process was not quick. First came the electrical work, then the plastering, and only a few weeks later did it become possible to install the equipment that had already been purchased. At one point, the festival and foundation teams even joked about how to illustrate the report when there was, essentially, nothing to photograph yet: make a collage of equipment boxes and stills from an old video of the ruined room — contrasted with what it would eventually become.

And then this happened…

In addition to the fundraiser and renovation made possible by the Travelling Festival’s audiences, a number of other partners joined in — the Kinoprostir company provided the equipment, while the agricultural holding MHP purchased additional seats.

The official opening took place on August 14, 2026. But the first step toward it was the fundraiser launched by the Traveling Festival and the Principle of Hope Foundation — it was what set the renovation in motion, after which other partners joined in.

At the entrance to the renovated hall, visitors are greeted by a mural by Ukrainian artist Liudmyla Meshkova (her works can be found in churches, cultural spaces, and hospitals, and one of her murals adorns UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Behind this renovation lies a question much broader than fitting out a space and installing seats. In their conversations with people who have returned from captivity or military service, the foundation’s team has repeatedly heard about another challenge: after years spent outside ordinary civilian life, the world has had time to change. Today, this period often lasts four years or more, and returning means not only physical recovery but also gradually getting used to a new life.

Here, cinema can serve not merely as an entertainment but almost as a therapy: it provides a shared language for talking about a world that has changed, and about a person who has changed along with it. That is why the goal is not a one-off screening, but turning the space into a permanent film club, featuring films from the DOCU/CLUB network’s collection, which currently numbers around 100 documentaries.

But the story does not end there. This autumn, as part of the 23rd Travelling Docudays UA Festival, a special screening is planned in the newly opened hall. The festival’s regional partners in the region have already taken on the coordination.


The medical facility’s management also asked us to thank everyone who contributed to the fundraiser, everyone who watched and continues to watch festival films and decided that this hall was worth supporting.

Thank you to everyone who made this fundraiser possible. It is an example of how a ticket to a documentary screening can turn into a very real room with lights, seats, and a screen — a space where something important can begin for people who deserve it.