Alisa Kovalenko (born September 24, 1987) is a Ukrainian documentary filmmaker and soldier. Her films have focused on

Russia's invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

both during the

2014 annexation of Crimea In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russ ...

and the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She is known for films such as '' We Will Not Fade Away'' (2023) and ''Alisa in Warland'' (2015).

Early life and education

Alisa Kovalenko was born in

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a population of ...

, Ukraine in 1987. In Kyiv, she studied documentary filmmaking at the Karpenko-Karyi University and then went on to study at the Wajda Film School in Warsaw, Poland.

Career

In 2014, while still a film student, she made her first film, ''Sestra Zo'' about a former soccer player. In 2015, her first feature-length documentary, ''Alisa in Warland,'' premiered at the

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Description IDFA is an independent, international meeting place for audiences ...

. The footage came about when Kovalenko traveled to the front line of the

war in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

during Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. It was co-directed by Liubov Durakova. In 2018, her second documentary, ''Home Games,'' which centered around a 20-year-old female soccer player from a poor family, premiered at IDFA. In 2019, Kovalenko's experiences in Donbas lead her to begin a documentary film about the lives of teenagers in the war torn area and an opportunity five of them had to travel to the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

. In 2023, the final film '' We Will Not Fade Away'' premiered at the

73rd Berlin International Film Festival The 73rd annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale (), took place from 16 to 26 February 2023. It was the first completely in-person Berlinale since 70th Berlin International Film Festival, the 70th in 2020. The fe ...

. Originally, ''We Will Not Fade Away'' was going to have a very different tone, but the Russian Invasion of Ukraine completely changed the project. Following the Russian occupation, some of those in the film safely fled, but at the time of the release, two of the leads of the film were unaccounted for. Kovalenko said that the experience made her feel "powerless as a documentary filmmaker." The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted Kovalenko to join the Ukrainian Volunteer Army (before production of ''We Will Not Fade Away'' was complete). Saying, "I promised myself if a war ... will cover all Ukraine, then I will fight not with my camera but with a gun." After her tour, she finished editing ''We Will Not Fade Away'' and then turned new footage from the frontlines into the film ''My Dear Theo'', a video diary for her young son, which premiered in the main competition at CPH:DOX in 2025. Her upcoming project ''Traces'' is co-directed by Marysia Nikitchuk and focused on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Activism

Kovalenko is a member of SEMA Ukraine, which advocates for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. During the war in Donbas, Kovalenko was sexually assaulted by Russian-backed forces. She has said that many cases go unspoken and wants to help other survivors with her work and by being open about her experience and the realities of the Russian invasion.

Accolades

Since 2019 Kovalenko has been a member of the

European Film Academy The European Film Academy is a group of European film director, filmmakers who come together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988. Every year, the European Film Academy honors films an ...

Personal life

She is married to producer Stéphane Siohan and together they have one son.

Filmography

* ''Sestra Zo'' (2014) * ''Alisa in Warland'' (2015) co-directed with Liubov Durakova * ''Home Match'' (2017, Short) * ''Home Games'' (2018) * ''Girl Away from Home'' (2023, Short) * '' We Will Not Fade Away'' (2023) * ''My Dear Theo'' (2025)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1987 births Ukrainian film directors Ukrainian documentary film directors Ukrainian documentary filmmakers Living people