Its a lovely cottage on a hill, with clouds dotting a sky of blue.
But escaping the trauma of war is another matter.
The impetus behind the camp is just really beautiful and inspiring, Lowe tells Deadline.
Milana in ‘Camp Courage’Netflix
Russian-backed forces, who already at that point were attacking positions in Eastern Ukraine, shelled the neighborhood.
Luckily, the child was rescued by a passer-by.
Olga says in the film of her granddaughter, She went through a lot.
‘Camp Courage’Netflix
So much suffering and pain.
She adds, Milana lights me up and keeps me from falling into darkness.
Milana has suffered both psychological and physical wounds.
Lowe chose not to foreground her injury until about six minutes into the documentary.
I never wanted that characteristic of Milana to be a focus of the film as much, Lowe explains.
AsCamp Courageshows, Milana is excited about the prospect of scaling the mountains, at least in the abstract.
On the way there, she says excitedly, I want to climb them!
She was totally capable of doing all those things, the director notes.
Lowes own experience bears closely on what Milana has gone through.
But when Max was just 10, his father was killed in an avalanche in Tibet.
He explored the impact of losing his dad in the award-winning 2021 feature documentaryTorn.
But he proceeded carefully again, based on personal experience.
I had that initial call with Olga and Milana to feel it out, basically.
I didnt want to force this upon them if they didnt want to do this in any capacity.
And they both said yes.
And there was never a point where either of them ever felt like theyd pulled away from us.
He found healing through experiences in nature.
Nathan was able to process a lot of his own trauma in the mountains, Lowe says.
Toward the end of the week-long camp, Milana and Olga got to seeTorn.
All the families were definitely hit hard by watching that film and me being there with them.
She kind of followed me around.
Without words, there was this understanding between us of this shared experience.
Lowe adds, It made you feel like youre in the right place, telling the right story.
