Editor’s Pitch

“Thank your luck stars that you don’t live in Europe…” - that’s a strange thing to think, but this is a shameful and painful story about something close to Western homes, not far from its shores in a different continent where responsibility can be easily shrugged off. Our children are our most valuable resource, and what gives me hope is that the young people portrayed in this film, while heavily conflicted, are often more loving, more self-aware and more open to kindness than many of those around them.


Ukraine, Europe’s second largest country, has been struggling under the weight of poverty since gaining its independence in 1991. Relations with key trading partner Russia have soured, much sought after EU membership has as yet come to nothing, and millions are mired in poverty. As a consequence there are over one million children and teenagers living homeless on the streets of Ukraine’s cities. Flowers Don’t Grow Here allows us intimate access to a community of homeless kids living rough on the streets of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital city.

Director Shira Pinson filmed over a period of four months and introduce us to a range of characters all of whom have been driven from their homes by domestic violence, poverty, or both. One is Ruslan, an alcoholic ex-soldier from Sarajevo who does his best to care for his partner Tanya, a part time prostitute who works Kiev’s streets to support her two children. But Ruslan cannot seem to escape the events of his past and he struggles vainly to control his drinking and bouts of depression. This in turn generates a tension which is slowly tearing his family apart.

A family of a different kind are three teenager siblings who have escaped from domestic violence - Vasya, Chippolino and Ruslana. They do their best to care for each other but the joys of glue sniffing have gradually dulled their desire for positive action. The future seems bleak and the state which actively sees these children as sub-human offers nothing in the way of support.

As winter descends, the trio face the very real threat of freezing and they pile into a ramshackle house where theft and drug abuse are rife. Tensions between them worsen and chaos briefly descends, leading to an unnecessary, tragic death.

Though these characters are fundamentally decent, the pressures of street life push people towards violence. Brutalised by an uncaring state, these children in turn pass their frustrations onto each other. Positive words spoken between hits of whatever drug is handy are cold, solitary comfort in their everyday reality.

Flowers Don’t Grow Here is about Kiev, not Paris, not Barcelona, not Prague - but this is Europe. A whole generation of Ukrainians are growing up without hope or even a sense of a future. Being part of the European community is supposed to offer something quite different. Shira Pinson’s stark truths are a vital antidote to a Western media happy to uphold the image of Europe’s shining union.


Festival Recognition

Winner: Monika Smith Trophy for Best Documentary,
End of the Pier International Film Festival 2007 (UK)

Winner: Big Issue Social Care Award 2006
Document 4: International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2006 (UK)