The Rippling Silence

Three countries, three generations, one silence. The Rippling Silence (83 min) is an intimate observational documentary in which women in Ukraine, Kosovo and Germany trace how the trauma of wartime sexual violence echoes from mothers to daughters, and dare to speak.

Through this campaign, we raise funds for a safe place to heal: rehabilitation retreats for women survivors.

Our goal: €13,000 to fund a seven-day rehabilitation programme for 14–16 women who survived Russian occupation, captivity and conflict-related sexual violence. If we reach €26,000, a second programme will support another 14–16 survivors.

The retreats are run by Numo, Sisters!, a Ukrainian NGO founded by a survivor of captivity. They offer psychological, body-oriented, creative and resource-based practices in a safe space where women can rest and build trust, the retreat offers psychological, body-oriented, creative and resource-based practices to recover from trauma. 

 What your donation makes possible:

• €120 – one day of the programme for one woman
• €850 – the full seven-day programme for one woman
• €13,000 – one full programme for 14–16 women
• €26,000 – two programmes, reaching up to 32 women

Why donate?

Help Dariia and other Ukrainian survivors give women who lived through Russian occupation, captivity, and wartime sexual violence a safe place to rest, heal, and be heard.

Your support for Ukrainian survivors

Every day, more and more women in Ukraine find the strength to speak about what they lived through under Russian occupation and in captivity, and ask for help. The story of this film began when we met Dariia, a Ukrainian protagonist, at a rehabilitation programme. The care and support she received helped her take steps crucial for her recovery. Today Dariia speaks up so that more women can have the same chance.

The seven-day retreats are run by Numo, Sisters!, an NGO founded in 2024 by Liudmyla Huseinova, who survived three years of Russian captivity. Led by survivors and professional psychotherapists, the programme supports women’s mental and emotional well-being through psychological, body-oriented, creative and resource-based practices, and helps them return to everyday life. Above all, it offers safe time and space — to rest, restore trust and begin healing through care and mutual support.

Stay connected
Follow the film and its impact campaign on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-occupied-voices-of-resilience/

More about the film

The Rippling Silence explores how unhealed trauma from wartime sexual violence is passed from generation to generation, shaping the lives of survivors and their descendants, and how much courage it takes to break the silence, especially with those closest to us. Through three interwoven stories from Ukraine, Kosovo and Germany, the film follows women as they confront the legacy of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and search for ways to heal. Art, testimony, therapy and family conversations become tools for reclaiming identity, dignity and agency.

Ukraine. Dariia, 32, is a young artist living with memories of occupation and rape during the war. Feeling lost and isolated, she makes collages as a form of therapy. When she is offered the chance to file a case with an international court, she faces a painful dilemma: how to seek justice while keeping her story secret from her father. Over time, she finds the courage to tell him the truth and reconnect with her family. Her story reflects the experience of first-generation survivors coping with trauma in the present.

Kosovo. Venesa, 28, is hospitalised in critical condition after a long struggle with anorexia. She has no conscious memory of the war, yet the unresolved trauma of her mother, Shyhrete, a survivor of wartime rape, has deeply shaped her life with anxiety and fear. As mother and daughter move into a new apartment together, they begin to share their worries and memories of the past. Their story shows how trauma passes from one generation to the next, and how breaking the silence can open a fragile space for healing.

Germany. Andrea, 62, cares for her elderly mother Moni, who has lived with trauma from the Second World War for decades. As a child, Moni witnessed her father’s murder and her mother’s rape, events that led to lifelong alcohol addiction and emotional distance from Andrea. Near the end of Moni’s life, Andrea returns to the places where her mother’s trauma began and stages their shared story as a theatre performance in Stuttgart, searching for reconciliation, understanding and her own sense of belonging.

Together, the three stories reveal the long-lasting impact of wartime sexual violence on individuals, families and generations. The Rippling Silence shifts the focus from brutality to resilience, portraying survivors who reclaim their voices. By looking into the past, the film asks urgent questions about the future: is healing possible, and how can the cycle of trauma be stopped?

Directed by Tetiana Hanzha and Zoia Volk. A co-production of ZOVA Films (Germany), Arts & Rights (Ukraine) and DocEdu Foundation (Poland), with ARTE and SWR as part of ARTE’s Generation Ukraine collection, TVP and Suspilne. Supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, MFG Baden-Württemberg, Łódź Film Fund and IWM.