My Name is Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas, the Film

My Name is Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas, the Film

The Holodomor was a famine genocide of Ukrainians committed by the Soviet Union in 1932-1933, which took the lives of millions. I wanted to use the Holodomor as a case study to explore the art of storytelling in the context of trauma and to encourage discussions around genocide. I also wanted to increase Holodomor awareness among Western audiences. With this in mind, I collected dozens of survivors’ accounts and focused on Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas. Eugenia was a Holodomor survivor who went on to become a successful model in Europe and the U.S. Her testimony before the U.S. Congress in 1984 led to the Holodomor being officially recognized as a genocide by the U.S., as well as other countries.

I created a framework for communicating the topic of genocide tailored to Western audiences. Using this framework, I produced a short film that tells the history and shows the consequences of the Holodomor, while walking the audience through Eugenia’s life story. The film deconstructs sparse historical and personal photos to reconstruct the narrative using hand-drawn elements, sound effects, and AI tools.

The Challenges of Communicating Genocide

I. Balancing representations of death and violence

Genocide is an amalgamation of violence, including forced displacement, sexual violence, and mass murder. Depictions of violence can overwhelm, traumatize, or numb the audience to the scale of the horror.

II. Maintaining historical accuracy

Genocides cause political and social upheaval, and the perpetrators often hide their crimes. Genocide survivors recount their subjective experiences and perspectives but are not omniscient. As a result, it can be challenging to create an engaging yet historically accurate narrative.

III. Overcoming the limited capacity for representation

Viewers have no frame of reference for the horrific events of the genocide. They can comprehend facts like death tolls, and empathise with the victims, but will never fully comprehend a survivor’s experience.

finding a protagonist

Witnesses to the Genocide Who Fought for Truth and Justice

While searching for a Holodomor survivor whose story embodied an unbreakable spirit and strength, I went through hundreds of testimonies. I found several dozen who, after enduring unimaginable hardships, managed to gain recognition in Ukraine and abroad. This list, among others, includes Vasyl Barka (1908-2003), who wrote Zhovtyi Kniaz (eng. The Yellow Prince), the first novel about the Holodomor; Kateryna Bilokur (1900-1961), a widely exhibited artist admired by Pablo Picasso; Evgeniia Miroshnychenko (1931-2009), an internationally renowned opera singer; Levko Lukianenko (1928-2018), a political dissident, Nonna Auska (1923-2013), a doctor, and Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas (1925-2014), a widely recognized fashion model.

Vasyl Barka and Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas stood out because they witnessed before the U.S. Congression investigation of the Holodomor in 1984. Eugenia and Vasyl spoke publicly in the face of intimidation and death threats by the Soviets. Their testimonies contributed to the U.S. officially recognizing the Holodomor as a genocide of Ukrainians.

I. Balancing representations of death and violence in communicating the story of Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas

Telling an engaging story about genocide that communicates the atrocities but doesn’t leave the audience devastated is challenging. Many genocide survivors’ testimonies are anonymous and focused on specific incidents of death and violence. Moreover, full cohesive accounts of survivors’ lives before and after a genocide are rarely available

I decided to focus on Eugenia’s account because it captures the darkness of the Holodomor, but has moments of joy and resilience. In crafting the core narrative of the film, I mapped Eugenia’s experiences onto The Inzovu Curve. Thus the story starts with her early childhood experiences, moving down into the trauma of collectivization and the famine, and then moving up following the end of the Second World War and Eugenia’s successful career in the West.

Image: Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas’s life story following the Inzovu Curve

II. Maintaining historical accuracy

It is difficult to craft a historically accurate narrative about genocide because the perpetrators often attempt to conceal their crimes. During the Holodomor, the Soviets closed their borders and spread propaganda in Western media. In the aftermath of this genocide, they intimidated witnesses, stifled investigations, and classified archival materials. As a result, the history of the Holodomor is incomplete, and the exact number of victims will never be known.

Designers can address these challenges by fastidiously verifying historical information and carefully considering the artistic purpose of including any subjective information. To craft the script for “My Name is Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas”, I deconstructed Eugenia’s autobiography book, “One Woman, Five Lives, Five Countries” (1998), to create a visual summary of the book. Then, I validated Eugenia’s account and timeline of events by consulting historical materials and experts.

After analyzing their stories, I chose to focus on Eugenia because of her strong connection to the U.S., outstanding history of activism, and memoir One Woman, Five Lives, Five Countries which was self-published in the U.S. Her memoir recounts the darkness of the Holodomor and the trauma she carried throughout her life. But also has moments of joy and resilience which highlights the strength of the human spirit.

Image: Schematic of Eugenia’s memoir One Woman, Five Lives, Five Countries

III. Overcoming the limited capacity for representation

Artists, designers, and especially filmmakers, try to visually communicate the atrocities of genocide in a form that is accessible to the broadest possible audience to increase the impact of their work. This is particularly difficult because viewers likely have no frame of reference for such horrific events and survivor’s experiences. However, by trying to appeal to a broad audience there is a risk of turning survivors’ tragic stories into “cheap consumer goods”. One example is the highly commercialized television miniseries “Holocaust” which Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Laureate Ellie Wiesel called “an insult to those who perished”.

Effective visual communication about genocide must balance images, words, and silent moments for reflection. If these elements are not balanced, the narrative risks losing the audience's attention, overwhelming them, or leaving the story disconnected from its historical context. My name is Eugenia Sakevych-Dallas balances these elements in part by incorporating paratext—white text on a black screen—which grounds the narrative in historical truth, fills gaps in the audiences’ ability to visualize the scale of the atrocities, and helps them understand the environment and obstacles that the survivor had to overcome through historical context.

Image: The risks of an imbalanced narrative

creative concept

Bringing Eugenia's Story to Life Through Digital Storytelling

I was greatly inspired by the traditional way of storytelling and I wanted to incorporate this traditional way of storytelling into a digital realm. Eugenia's story is narrated by a storyteller who presents the old photo album to the audience and brings Eugenia’s story to life with visuals. As the narrator speaks, the photos in the album come to life through color and motion. The transition between each chapter of Eugenia's story is visually communicated through a different photos in the album. This technique not only places the audience in the environment (e.g. clearly explains where they are in the story), but also contextualizes the story within a historical setting. It also allows for a smooth transition between different chapters (e.g. the transitions will not feel abrupt to the audience), and opens up an opportunity to include historical photographs of the Holodomor in the story.

Visual language

Guiding the Audience Through Visual Reconstruction to Tell Eugenia's Story

I developed a visual language by deconstructing historical and personal photographs to reconstruct Eugenia’s story visually. Hand-drawn elements were integrated to complement the aesthetics of the historical photographs adding a personal touch while depicting the events of the Holodomor. The film’s color palette primarily features shades and tints of dark brown, off-white, and green. Color saturation varies with the emotional tone of each chapter or scene: bright and highly saturated green introduces the story, gradually fading as the narrative delves into the horrors of the famine. Scenes of hope reintroduce bright and saturated colors, aligning with the emotional shifts in the narrative.

The historical facts are presented in the form of paratext—essentially white text on a black screen. This paratext appears unexpectedly within the story, disrupting the plot and forcing it to unfold in a different direction. These paratexts represent the vicious decisions of the Soviet government, such as collectivization, class warfare, or the Law of Three Spikelets, which caught genocide victims off guard, depriving them of control over their future.