Keira Knightley narrates memoir of the war written by Ukrainian schoolgirl
A 12-YEAR-OLD Ukrainian schoolgirl who wrote a memoir about her experiences of the war has said Keira Knightley’s narration was “like listening to myself ” and she hopes to meet the star.
Yeva Skalietska told The Sunday Telegraph that Ms Knightley “told every emotion that I lived through” as she read the book.
“When I was scared, when my friends were scared, she read this and she was narrating so powerfully,” she said. “For me, it’s a big honour that she made this.”
Ms Skalietska’s diary of her life as a refugee, called You Don’t Know What War Is, chronicles her journey from Kharkiv to Dublin and the 12 days that changed her life forever.
It has been compared to Anne Frank’s diary for its revelation of what war is like through the eyes of a child and is being published in 19 languages.
Ms Knightley said she was “honoured” to be chosen to narrate the UK version, adding: “You Don’t Know What War Is had a huge effect on me. It’s an incredibly important story to tell that is both powerful and deeply moving.”
Ms Skalietska woke in the early hours of a February morning to the sound of shelling as her area was struck by heavy bombardment.
The Russian attempt to seize Kharkiv had brought disaster to Ukraine’s second-largest city. Although the eastern city never fell to Russian forces, neighbourhoods were reduced to dust.
As the bombs fell, Ms Skalietska ran with her grandmother to shelter in a basement, where she decided to write down her experiences as a way to process her emotions. She said: “When I was writing on paper, it was easier for me. And I was talking with the voice inside me to describe my feelings.”
‘I wanted the whole world to hear our story. They will read what it’s really like to live through this’
She recorded the events that followed hour by hour. Each entry is accompanied by personal photographs, excerpts of messages between her and her friends and the day’s news.
Three maps show Ms Skalietska and her grandmother’s journey across Europe.
Ms Skalietska said she wrote the diary to look back on in 10 or 20 years and that she hopes one day her future children will read it to know what the war was like. She added: “I really wanted the whole world to hear our story. They will read what it’s really like to live through this.”
The moment Ms Skalietska learned her home had become rubble is the memory that lingers most painfully in her mind. “On the worst day in the book, we knew that our apartment was bombed,” she said. “On this day, in the evening, huge planes and drones were flying over and it was really horrible. We were afraid.”
Soon after, she was saved by volunteers before making the long and arduous journey to Dublin. There, she continues to write alongside learning English, attending school and making media appearances for her memoir.
She dreams of one day attending the University of Oxford, but most of all wants peace to return to her home. She said: “I really hope that the war in Ukraine will finish. And I hope that everything will be rebuilt and bombs are removed from every part of my city, so lives will be saved.”