“Five, six, seven, eight!” On a beach, 12 women in red cheerleading outfits begin a routine that a coach off screen who bursts onto the scene to interject “The center is right here! Girls, spread out.” shows them. In some ways it’s not your typical cheerleading team, this one is made up of older women most over 50 but spry, nimble and split-skillful nonetheless.
So begins Mariia Ponomarova’s documentary Nice Ladies, which follows a group of aging Ukrainian women as they confront daily life and love for cheerleading amid conflict. The movie just had its world premiere and is competing for the Dutch Movies Matter Award at the 2024 Movies that Matter Festival in The Hague.
Nice Ladies is a Ukrainian women’s competitive cheerleading (or more accurately cheerdance, emphasizing artistic elements over technical stunts) troupe from Kharkiv, Eastern Ukraine. But they are also engineers, university instructors, people who consider cheerleading their passion. Ponomarova focuses on Sveta Stopina’s perspective with those of team captain Valia Onyshchenko and coach Nadia Avdasiova. They are close friends who make sure to show up for each other’s birthdays and share children’s, grandchildrens’ and pets’ pictures with glee.
The documentary looks at their lives in early 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began external conflict namely the tensions between Sveta and Nadia. Sveta contacts Ponomarova (known throughout the film by her nickname, Masha), who helps get her to Amsterdam where she lives during another part of the year while the rest of the team stays behind in bombarded Kharkiv. The war quickly takes over the film and then everything else happens after it. But Ponomarova brings a fresh take on films about living within the war in Ukraine and focuses on a different demographic independent, older women who have active lives in more than one way.
The most interesting parts of the film only come up within the last third when they start having hushed (and harsh) conversations about survivor’s guilt and personal responsibility among themselves. “A full belly doesn’t understand an empty one,” screams Nadia at Sveta in the most gripping sequence of the film, revealing deeper anxieties around leaving vs staying and who has the privilege to do what.
DoP Svetlana Aparina is not afraid to get up close and personal with the Nice Ladies while still maintaining a fly on the wall style. It is clear that Ponomarova would not have had access to the troupe if she didn’t become such good friends with them; exemplified by a scene where they all do face massage exercises together. The story skims over deeper discussions around societal expectations of these women other than in passing conversation, leaving you wanting more. But it’s guaranteed, you will fall for these Nice Ladies.
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