Stories about people living with disabilities whose lives changed through sport: the Blindness Game documentary was presented in Kyiv

A Ukrainian-German film crew has created a movie that inspires people with serious injuries to live and fight for success.

It was discussed during the presentation of the film at the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform.

“The main purpose to which this film is put is very simple—we want to bring to light the life stories of sport affecting people’s lives. These are stories about Paralympic Movement members, professional athletes, veterans who practice sports, ordinary people living with various impairments, and how they overcome the odds and become a little happier by doing sports. We aim to look for this transformation of a person through sport,” explained Ruslan Batytskyi, the film’s director and producer.

The Blindness Game documentary has a playable short film with additional content. The authors of the project did a kind of experiment and created two films under the same title: a documentary, and a scripted feature film, with staged dialogues, and acting.

Serhii Vrabii is the film’s protagonist, a professional goalball player who lost his sight at the age of six. Based on his experience, he emphasizes that he would like people to get the main point of this project across—a disability doesn’t mean putting an end to a person’s life.

“I want this film to sow the seed of awareness in the field of ignorance toward blind people, and not only blind people, because there are other issues brought up in our film. I want this seed to take deep roots in people’s minds that will allow them to approach the subject from a different angle, with a different understanding, and for people to pay attention to it. I want people with disabilities to see this and realize that their life doesn’t end with acquiring a disability, that there are things they can do, and, like me, they can play sports, and act in movies. It’s not a problem, and disability is not the end of the world. I think this is the main idea that I would like people to grasp in this film,” said Serhii Vrabii. 

After the pre-premiere screening, the documentary is planned to be aired on television and published in the public domain. The authors want as many Ukrainians as possible to see this movie, which would give them an impetus to seek opportunities for themselves.

Overall, the filmmakers plan to get the film screened at at least ten international film festivals. 

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news