My film, I Wasn't Supposed to Exist, tells the deeply personal story of Ukrainian women’s resilience through generational survival under Russian imperialism. By exploring my family history, it highlights how identity is shaped through trans-generational dialogue. The film centres on me, my mother, and my grandmother tending to my great-grandmother’s grave, blending personal experiences with historical and cultural elements. Oral histories, recorded conversations with my family, offer counter-narratives to imperialist stories that have erased our truths.

The film’s methodology is rooted in an anti-colonial approach, challenging Western narratives that marginalise Ukrainian culture. It rejects conventional filmmaking structures, embracing intuitive, experimental techniques. By layering archival footage, oral histories, music, and rituals, I create a space where the colonised can tell their own stories without being silenced or edited. The film contrasts archival material with sounds of war, highlighting the ongoing struggle for Ukrainian survival within a colonial context. The symbolic acts of grave-tending become gestures of resistance and connection to ancestors.

This project aligns with the unit brief by diverging from traditional Western filmmaking, challenging Eurocentric representations, and embracing a non-linear, non-representational approach that places untold stories and voices at the centre, critiquing colonial power structures.