Enter Through the Balcony

Great documentary! I enjoyed it very much. You have to love those balconies if only for the sake of diversity. People do this sort of thing everywhere if they can and especially if they need it. Considering some of the comments on your film, it would be interesting to include critical views. It is also very telling in social terms how people reproduce hierarchizing discourses by judging architectural taste.

Интересный фильм, персонажи отличные, тема, как мне кажется раскрыта не полностью.

Дуже сподобався фільм, 25 хвилин мало(

Який цікавий фільм! Такий добрий, домашній, щемкий. Це і історія, і філософія. Особливо подобається як автор показує, що до балконів можна ставитись як до чогось більшого, ніж просто жахливе місце для хламу. Що це не ознак несмаку, а навпаки - дзеркало людей і їх вподобань. Щось таке, за чим можна з цікавістю споглядати. Дякую за створення фільму, сайту і можливість подивитись це!

Такий теплий фільм! Половину чау просидів з усмішкою на лиці :)

Крутяцький фільм !! ) Лишень щойно вловив себе на думці, що мені подається роглядати балкони. Не оцінювати зі сторони архітектури та дизайну, а дивитись зі сторони частини людського життя ) Це твоє творіння, це твій куточок, це твоя домівка, це ще один маленький світ, де живеш, відпочиваєш, тусуєшся чи навіть спиш у спальному мішку, уявляючи що десь у горах) Тепер я хочу мати балкон ))

What an interesting history of the balconies in Ukraine! We noticed that they all seemed to be different, and now we understand why -- because they were all built by individuals, rather than by the building's construction company. I never thought about balconies being an important social feature, so that was a novel thought to me, as well. Really enjoyed the video!

I love it! I've always had a strong attraction to these balconies, they allow individual human expression on huge uniform buildings. When we think of a cozy street of classic little row houses, what is attractive is the fine-grained architecture of it all. Every house is a little different, even if they were built the same. Different paint, different renovations, different decorations, different shapes. Each house is clearly lived in by humans who have expressed themselves through the facade of their home. But in large multi-family buildings, this very human need to express and claim the space is often restricted. Specially in the west there is an obsession with keeping multi-family buildings looking exactly how they were when built. If you can enclose a balcony it must be done by the same company so each enclosure is identical, and on newer buildings it's always outright banned. They even restrict storage on the balconies, restrict what sort of blinds you can use, they want to keep everything as uniform as an office block. Yes, many of the enclosures we see in the documentary are rather ramshackle, but that is mostly because Ukraine is a poor country and the residents doing the work have had to make-do with what materials they could "find". I wish these hyper-individual enclosures were much more the norm in the west, they allow personal expression and customization of one's living space even for folks in multi-family buildings. Done with a few basic rules for safety of construction but otherwise entirely up to the owner. It turns the facade of a multi-family building from a monotonous repetitive inhuman form into an organic vertical street of individual humans. But instead in the west we are told "you can't store your bike on your balcony, it looks ulgy". The fact that living humans reside in a building is a shameful truth we seek to hide, the uniformity and dignity of the non-living structure is put ahead of its human parasites. In much of the west, the perfect ideal of a residential building would be one free of all humans. I much rather see the human residents celebrated.

great insight to life in Ukraine, interesting to see how people adapt to their surroundings and adapt the surroundings to themselves.

Справді класний фільм. Ще більше запевнюєшся, як багато зовсім неочевидних зв'язків існує між теперішнім та минулим. З таких, на перший погляд, дрібниць і формується культура, в якій ми живемо. Дякую за цікаві думки!