The film depicts the life of Alina Shilova, a 20-year-old girl from Kyiv, whose passion for football has a chance of saving her from poverty. Alina is now a professional player, but her situation remains uncertain: her mother suddenly dies, leaving behind Alina’s beloved siblings, Renat & Regina, 6 and 7 years old. Alina becomes a substitute mother. Her career plans are on the verge of collapse. The whole dysfunctional family is living in a cramped one-room apartment. Alina wants to give her brother and sister a better life than the one she had. Will she find the strength to cope with everything? How can you win the match of your life when the odds are stacked against you?
This film was created with the financial support by The Guardian as part of the Guardian Goes Ukraine project.
The Guardian Goes Ukraine is an all-Ukrainian contest for documentary projects, conceived by the British Council, the Guardian and Docudays UA.
Alisa Kovalenko is a Ukrainian director. She graduated from the Karpenko-Kary cinema university of Kyiv and the Andrzej Wajda school in Warsaw. Her first full-length documentary Sister Zo (2013) was featured at DocuDays UA, Molodist IFF (Kiev) and ArtDocFest (Moscow). Her last film Alisa in Warland (2015) appeared in competition at the IDFA in Amsterdam and won first prize at the Fidadoc festival of Agadir (Morocco), DocsMX (Mexico) and the Paris Festival of Cinema & Human Rights (2016).
Selected: Sister Zo (2013), Alisa in Warland (2015)
