‘It is,’ Gazette features editor Ed Reyes tells Obiter, ‘more work than you might think opening a cinema from scratch.’ Last year, Ed attended the screening of a prize-winning documentary by Ukrainian director Evgeny Afineevsky, on the plight of Ukraine’s children in Russia’s war.
Ash and Crayons follows the lives of several children, two of whom were subject to Russia’s policy of abduction for forced indoctrination and adoption, but were among the few who managed a return to their families. Others included amputees injured in Russian air attacks.
‘It’s a very hard-hitting and important film,’ Ed says. But it needed a bigger audience. While critically acclaimed, Ash and Crayons was not on general release.
A screening on Tuesday, in the Law Society’s Common Room, was funded by law firm Wolf Theiss, whose Ukraine managing partner Taras Dumych travelled to London for the event, and members of the IBA’s European Regional Forum Committee. Also arriving from Ukraine was Bohdan Yermokhin, a child in the film but now in the Ukrainian army. More than 100 people attended.
‘It did occur to me as guests arrived,’ Ed says, ‘that I hadn’t thought about security. Guest Johanna Baxter MP is personally sanctioned by the Kremlin.’ Then a large black car pulled up outside, out of which swept Sir Keir Starmer with an entourage that included his security detail. He was attending an event downstairs marking 40 years of the CPS. ‘I suppose our security piggybacked on that.’
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