Episode One: A Displacement Story

Written By Sabrina Furminger

Putin’s war in Ukraine has wreaked havoc on all aspects of life for Ukrainians, including the very notion of home. Since February 2022, an estimated 3.7 million Ukrainians have been displaced internally, while an additional 6.9 million have sought refuge outside of the country. Whether internally or externally displaced, to be displaced is to feel like you’ve been quite literally knocked out of place. Your default place is safe at home – maybe in your family home in Odesa or your new flat in Kyiv – but the terrorist state knocked the world off its axis and, you, out of place. So now, you’re where you need to be to be safe, but a part of you is where you were, where your friends and family and everything you’ve ever known is still under fire. And so you occupy this uncomfortable space between places. Although it’s a relatively safe existence, it’s not without its burdens.

Khrystyna Syvolap lives in the space between places. The Ukrainian filmmaker (Viddana) arrived in Canada in spring 2022, determined to provide for her young daughter and build something resembling a normal life thousands of miles from home. In this contemplative and deeply personal conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Khrystyna reflects on her journey to this new normal, the emotional distance she feels from friends back home, the heartache she experiences as her daughter learns Canadian history (but not Ukrainian history) in her new school, and her complicated feelings about her own future. 

Sabrina Furminger
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Coming soon: Ukrainian Roots Podcast