Daughters of Donbas: Album and Film Release

7:00pm: Film Screening
Code 4.5.0.

- run time 50 minutes
- Ukrainian language with English subtitles
8:00pm: Album release concert
Songs of Stolen Children
- run time approximately 90 minutes plus intermission
- English language presentation, Ukrainian songs with English subtitles
Album Release
DAUGHTERS OF DONBAS — Songs of Stolen Children

Daughters of Donbas is a Canadian–Ukrainian women-led musical artivism project created to amplify the voices of the thouseands of Ukrainian children who were forcibly deported and separated from their families during Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Formed in January 2025, the collective united women in Toronto to transform testimony into music. Over the course of one year, they created and recorded their debut album, Songs of Stolen Children.

The sound is chamber and intimate: classical strings and bandura woven with delicate, truthful folk vocals. These are the voices of mothers waiting, of children longing for home, and of hope that refuses to disappear.

The project found its definition beyond music. In visual art, there is a word for it: artivism. Art that speaks directly to urgent reality, openly and without compromise.

The album includes two live tracks recorded in Lviv at the home studio of Ukrainian musician and veteran Nazar Pavlik. One instrumental track features Lisa, a girl from occupied Mariupol, playing the ocarina — a teenager who managed to return to Ukraine after being held in Russian filtration camps.

Listen. Reflect. Act. Share these stories — and help hold those responsible accountable.

“This album was not created to represent us as artists only. It exists to carry voices that were taken away — children who were deported, silenced, and forced to grow up far from home. Music became our way to speak when they could not.”

— Marichka, Daughters of Donbas

Musicians

Marichka — keyboards, vocals
Alina Kuzma — bandura, vocals
Zoe Santo — viola
Lusine Navoyan — cello
Charlee Wielgosz — cello
Natalie Kemerer — double bass
Rachel Melas — double bass
Meika Sonntag — violin
Olga Kostyanyuk — violin
Maria Gurakova — backing vocals
Lisa — ocaryna

Production

Daniel Rosenberg — producer
Marichka — executive producer

Credits

Music — Marichka, folk songs
Arrangements — Alina Kuzma, Zoë Santo, Aslan Gotov, Victor Chernyavsky
Lyrics — folk songs, Yurko Izdryk, Taras Shevchenko, Marichka, Zoë Santo
Recording — Canterbury Studio (Toronto), Nazar Pavlik Studio (Lviv), Banjaxed Records (Montreal), Mark Lawson
Mixing — Julian Decorte, Nazar Pavlik
Film Screening
CODE 4.5.0.
Code 4.5.0. follows a Ukrainian volunteer and musician as she documents the lives of soldiers defending their country during the ongoing war. Moving between the front lines and life beyond them, the film observes everyday realities of conflict while holding onto the hope that normal life will one day return.
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY
Olena Tumanska

Executive Producer - Hari Srinivas
Produced by - Olena Tumanska
Associate Producer - Anna Wong
Camera Operators - Vladimir Strungar, Danylo Tuzov, Vladislav Posudevskyi
1st Assistant Camera - Andriy Evstratenko
Gaffer - Handrea Santos
Key Grip - Jeffrey Atienza
Editor + Post Production Supervisor - Oleksiy Buyanov
Director of Photography + Assistant Editor - Ivan Kyba
Mixing/Sound Recording/Sound Designer/Supervisor - Miroslav Delev
Colour Correction - Ismail Atiev
Composer - Marichka
Graphic Artist - Olesia Buganova
Stills Photographer - Ismail Atiev
Researcher - Tim Shourmin
Director's Assistant + Preliminary Budget - Maryna Kushnir
Technical Director - Aleksandar Zivanovic
Production Supervisor - Natasha Kelly
Production Manager - Jack Lukas
Publicist - Konstantin Nikitin
Production Coordinator - Alla Mazhara
Production Secretary - Bonnie Nicholson
Production Accountant + Post Production Accounting- Maria Kostopoulos
Accounting Clerk - Iuliia Orekhova

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