I Am Hope (Я — Надія)

Storyline

The first war drama series commissioned by the Ukrainian TV channel 2+2 which was filmed during a full-scale war in Ukraine. The lead characters are the emergency paramedics in Kharkiv, who from February to March 2022 were rescuing the civilians and military personnel of their city under continuous shelling and bombing. The young paramedic Nadiya (Hope), despite the real danger and the persuasion of her beloved to leave for a safer place, decides to stay in the besieged Kharkiv. She doesn't realize what awaits her in the coming weeks - sleepless nights, painful losses, daily risk to save others and meeting with the enemy face to face. The series was inspired by the story of a young 23-year-old paramedic Anna Andryushchenko, who worked at the Kharkiv Center for Emergency Medicine during the first months of the russian invasion. The war drama "I AM HOPE" was filmed in Kharkiv, Kyiv and in the region, in particular in Irpin, which was occupied by russian troops at the beginning of the full-scale war. The ongoing martial law in Ukraine made adjustments to the filming process. Air raids, shelling, lack of cell service and power outages affected production. The crew did not shoot near infrastructure sites and refused from large-scale action-scenes with explosions. "In order to shoot on the retaken territories of Kyiv region, it was necessary to demine some locations. All this reminded us that the war is not only on the screen, it is in our lives", says director Denys Tarasov. Emergency paramedics and State Emergency Service were involved in production to advise the actors and the crew. In Kharkiv and in the territories of the Kyiv region, where the shooting took place, military experts worked on the site, providing the safety of the film crew. The series was shot for a record time. It took 5.5 months from the appearance of an idea to the premiere. The development and script writing were finished for three months, the preparation for filming lasted one month, the drama was filmed for 22 shifts. It is planned to finish post-production in 1.5 months.