Director: Nadiia Mykolaienko
Producer: Suspilne Ukraine (UA: PBC); Kseniia Shubeliak
Production Country: Ukraine
Date of Production: 2022
Broadcaster: Suspilne Ukraine (UA: PBC)
Photographer Stanislav Ivanov has lived in Mariupol all his life, exploring the city's history, streets, buildings and monumental art. The city by the Azov Sea was one of the richest in mosaic monuments in Ukraine. Some of the mosaics are more than half a century old. The Tree of Life panel, created by a team of artists led by Alla Horska and Viktor Zaretskyi, was bricked up after her death and rediscovered in 2008. Stanislav Ivanov and art historian Oleksandr Chernov collected this and other stories for the album All Shades of Mariupol Mosaics. They understood that the works could disappear without trace over time. After 24 February, 2022, the mosaics, along with hundreds of thousands of Mariupol residents, became hostages of the Russian occupant. The documentary film Smouldering. The Tree of Life brings us to a peaceful Mariupol of December 2021. Together with Stanislav, we explore the city and its mosaics, and are transported to the place where the passing of time and the forces of nature seemed to be the greatest threats.
