The Road to Dawn

The Road to Dawn is a Ukrainian historical documentary series directed by Taras Tkachenko, dedicated to the lives of children and teenagers who became political prisoners under Stalin’s Soviet regime in the late 1940s. Produced by InsightMedia with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.

The film features firsthand interviews with survivors, now elderly, who recount their childhood experiences of political persecution, imprisonment, forced deportation and separation from their families. Their testimonies reveal how Soviet repression affected not only individuals but entire families, destroying childhoods, separating generations and shaping lives long after imprisonment ended.

Through personal memories, the film examines the lasting consequences of political persecution: the loss of family members, restrictions on education and employment, continued surveillance and the struggle to rebuild a life after release. It focuses particularly on survivors from the Ternopil region of Western Ukraine, whose experiences form part of a larger, often overlooked chapter of Ukrainian history.

The mission of the film is to preserve the testimonies of survivors of Stalinist political repression and ensure that their experiences become part of the historical memory of future generations. As the surviving witnesses grow older, the opportunity to record their firsthand accounts becomes increasingly urgent.