The short documentary ‘How I Spent My Summer Holidays’ by Antonio Lukich tells the story of Ukrainian teenagers spending their summer break amid the war. The film premiered at the Docudays UA film festival and is now available on the online cinema platform Takflix
The idea for the film came to the director after visiting an English class taught by his friend. ‘I was deeply impressed by how fifteen-year-old students talked about their summer, searching for the right words in a foreign language’, Antonio Lukich explained.
The director spoke with teenagers from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and other regions about their summer memories, trying to find both the differences and the similarities in their stories.
‘Instead of the usual stories about vacations by the sea, bike rides, or sports victories, the younger generation of Ukraine has completely different stories’, the film’s description reads.
‘How I Spent My Summer Holidays’ poses the question: ‘Can even the most brutal war erase the youth, passion for life, and dreams of Ukrainian teenagers?’
The film was produced by Kyrylo Nechmonia (‘Brothers in Arms’) and Svitlana Nikolienko (‘The Sandmen’) from MIR AND CO PRODUCTION, with cinematography by Kyrylo Svietashov (‘Mosaics of Kyiv’).
Half of the proceeds from each ticket will be donated by the ‘How I Spent My Summer Holidays’ team to the Voices of Children Foundation.
About other films by Antonio Lukich
Antonio Lukich is currently working on his third feature film, ‘Screaming Girl’. It will be the director’s first English-language project and his first film since the release of ‘Luxembourg, Luxembourg’ in 2022.
‘Screaming Girl’ tells the story of a young woman who moves to Ireland after the full-scale war breaks out in Ukraine. There, she hopes to pursue her dream of becoming an actress, but soon begins to experience strange events that ‘disrupt her life, prompting her to rebuild it from scratch’.
In 2024, the project received the top award at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Irish producer Jessie Fisk from the production company Feline Films has now joined the project. The film has also received support from Screen Ireland and the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films (ESFUF). Filming is scheduled to begin in Ireland in 2026.
