ABOUT THE PROJECT
When the Sirens Wailed Again is an original project developed in two formats: a novel and a feature film screenplay.
It is a story about people caught inside events that cannot simply be left outside the door. A story about love, fear, choice, memory — and what remains within us when the familiar world begins to fall apart.
This website presents the story behind the project, the book, the screenplay, its characters, and materials developed for a future screen adaptation.
It is a story about people caught inside events that cannot simply be left outside the door. A story about love, fear, choice, memory — and what remains within us when the familiar world begins to fall apart.
This website presents the story behind the project, the book, the screenplay, its characters, and materials developed for a future screen adaptation.
HOW THE STORY BEGAN
When the Sirens Wailed Again began as a personal diary.
In 2022, I was fifteen years old. Together with my grandmother, I moved from Rostov to Spain and continued writing down everything that was happening around me: my emotions, family conversations, messages from home, the feeling of living between two different realities, and my attempts to adapt to a new life.
Gradually, these diary entries became intertwined with my family's history — the memory of my great-grandfather, who lived through the war, my grandmother's stories, old photographs, and one thought passed down through generations:
May our children never have to know what war is.
That personal diary eventually became a novel, and later a feature film screenplay.
This is not a story about politics.
It is the perspective of a fifteen-year-old teenager watching major historical events enter ordinary life — and discovering how, despite everything, a person continues to grow up, to love, and to build a future.
In 2022, I was fifteen years old. Together with my grandmother, I moved from Rostov to Spain and continued writing down everything that was happening around me: my emotions, family conversations, messages from home, the feeling of living between two different realities, and my attempts to adapt to a new life.
Gradually, these diary entries became intertwined with my family's history — the memory of my great-grandfather, who lived through the war, my grandmother's stories, old photographs, and one thought passed down through generations:
May our children never have to know what war is.
That personal diary eventually became a novel, and later a feature film screenplay.
This is not a story about politics.
It is the perspective of a fifteen-year-old teenager watching major historical events enter ordinary life — and discovering how, despite everything, a person continues to grow up, to love, and to build a future.
MAIN CHARACTERS
Three generations of one family reveal a story about memory, growing up, loss, and the human right to continue living even when the past begins to echo through the present.
NIKOLAI IOSIFOVICH
War veteran.
He survived the war, returned home, and built a house for his family.
But the war never entirely left him. It remained in his memories, in the way he reacted to sudden loud sounds, and in one simple wish he carried throughout his life:
that his children would never have to know what war is.
He survived the war, returned home, and built a house for his family.
But the war never entirely left him. It remained in his memories, in the way he reacted to sudden loud sounds, and in one simple wish he carried throughout his life:
that his children would never have to know what war is.
NINA
The veteran's daughter. Keeper of the family's memory.
She grew up beside a man for whom the war never became merely part of the past.
As an adult, Nina carries the family's memories throughout her life. At a decisive moment, she becomes the person who helps her family find a way forward.
She grew up beside a man for whom the war never became merely part of the past.
As an adult, Nina carries the family's memories throughout her life. At a decisive moment, she becomes the person who helps her family find a way forward.
SLAVIK
Great-grandson. Young actor.
At first, he knows war only through photographs, stories, medals, and family memories.
But decades later, history begins to move closer to his own life.
He is forced to rebuild himself, his future, and his place in the world — now in Europe.
At first, he knows war only through photographs, stories, medals, and family memories.
But decades later, history begins to move closer to his own life.
He is forced to rebuild himself, his future, and his place in the world — now in Europe.
WHY THIS STORY BELONGS ON SCREEN
Because this story exists not only in words.
It is told through faces, sounds, silence, family photographs, phone messages, and visual echoes between different generations.
It is told through faces, sounds, silence, family photographs, phone messages, and visual echoes between different generations.
- THE WAR REMAINS OFF SCREENThe story is not centered on battles.
Instead, we see ordinary life: a kitchen, the sea, old photographs, a family group chat, waiting for a reply, and a short message:
“Everything is fine.”
History enters the home through the smallest and most ordinary things. - THREE PERIODS. ONE MEMORY.After the war, a great-grandfather flinches at a sudden loud sound.
Decades later, his family waits through the night for a message from Rostov.
Different eras begin to mirror one another through sound, fear, gestures, and family memory. - THE FINAL CHOICE IS LIFEThe second half of the story is not simply about emigration.
It is about learning how to live again: a new language, a new home, education, work, filming — and the guilt of feeling safe while people you love remain far away.
The characters do not reject their past.
They simply refuse to let it take away their future.
DISCOVER THE BOOK AND THE SCREENPLAY
Explore the project in more detail through the materials below.
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santarojkov3001@gmail.com
santarojkov3001@gmail.com
