Marshfield-area farm couple opening their home to Ukrainian refugees the subject of film unveiled at Tribeca Film Festival
Editor's note: This story has been changed to clarify the name of the program and the government agency that allowed the Hnatiuks to come to the United States.
TOWN OF COLBY – The documentary opens in Ukraine — sirens blaring over visuals of bombed-out buildings, a family frantically evacuating an apartment, explosions, glass shattering, a child screaming.
Then, peaceful orchestral music plays over a drone shot of a quiet, picturesque farm surrounded by snow and the words "Unity, Wisconsin."
It's the beginning of the 25-minute film, "One Good Reason." The movie unspools the unlikely story about how a family from Lviv fled Russian bombs for the safety of a family farm in the town of Colby, a handful of miles northwest the tiny town of Unity. Directed by Emmy winners Perry Peltz and Matthew O'Neill, the film was produced by Tribeca Studios and unveiled at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.
"One Good Reason" follows Mykola and Olesia Hnatiuk and their two sons, Roman, 6, and Dmytro, 3, as they settle in a new life on the farm thanks to the generosity of farmers Bryce and Maxine (Max) Luchterhand.
The documentary includes the unique program that brought them together. They met through an online platform called Welcome Connect, which, almost like a dating app, matches refugees with American sponsors. It’s run by Welcome US, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization helping people from Ukraine and a few other troubled regions.
War disrupted their 'normal lives' — and pushed them from their home
On July 5, about six months after the Ukrainian family first arrived in Wisconsin, the Hnatiuks and Luchterhands sat down with a USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin reporter to talk about their new lives together. It was warm, beautiful and green on the farm that has been in the Luchterhand family since 1902.
Olesia and Mykola speak English, but it's limited. A translator was on a phone line, arranged by a public relations firm that represents Welcome US.
The Hnatiuks had been living, Olesia said, "normal lives," in Lviv, the second-largest city in Ukraine. Olesia was an accountant with an insurance company; Mykola was a regional director with the company. Then Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.
As the war exploded around them, Lviv came under rocket and drone attacks. Electricity became an increasingly rare luxury. As conditions deteriorated, Olesia and Mykola decided the most important thing was to keep their sons safe, and the best way to do that was to leave their home and their country. To get as far away from Russia as possible.
A couple in central Wisconsin asks, 'How can we help?'
Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 miles away, the Luchterhands were appalled by what was happening in Ukraine.
"You started seeing Ukrainian citizens vacating their homes, being pushed out of their homes," Bryce said. "So we’re sitting here watching this. We donated some money to Doctors Without Borders and organizations like that. But there was a need for people who wanted to get out of, completely out of Ukraine, not just move around, but get out."
In addition to farming, Bryce has worked in politics and government circles. He was appointed to work for the Farmers Home Administration, a former agency of the U.S. Department Agriculture under the Clinton administration. He's worked on the staffs of former Gov. Jim Doyle, Sen. Herb Kohl and Sen. Tammy Baldwin before retiring.
Like he did when he was in politics, he started to do some research, reaching out to find out if there was a more substantial way to help refugees from Ukraine. He found out the United States opened a program allowing Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war to come temporarily to the country.
The Luchterhand farm has two houses. For years, Bryce and Max live in a newer home, and Bryce's mother, Mary Luchterhand, lived in the house that Bryce grew up in. After his mother died from COVID-19 in October 2021, Bryce and Max had been wondering what to do with the now-empty farm house. They weren't keen on the idea of renting it out. But now, the idea that it could be used to help someone in need from Ukraine took hold.
"We started watching, thinking, 'We have that home. We happen to have three cars. What could be better?" Bryce said.
Finally, Bryce contacted a program in La Crosse that was working with refugees. That agency told him about Welcome Connect.
Making the connection through Welcome Connect
Max was skeptical. "It was like, what are we doing here? Are they going to ask for money?" she said. Then she went online and started researching the work the online program was doing.
"And I was so impressed. They take you though all the steps. They told us we should choose a family or a person that we felt compatible with," Max said.
Meanwhile, Olesia had learned of Welcome Connect through social media sources in Ukraine. And as the Hnatiuks joined the program, so too did the Luchterhands. And, like a dating app, potential matches were able to reach out to each other, anonymously at first, to determine whether they could work together in a way in which both the sponsor and recipient parties feel comfortable.
Max and Olesia started to text back and forth outside of Welcone Connect and soon the two families agreed to come together. It wasn't long before they all agreed that the Luchterhands would sponsor and house the Ukrainian family on their rural township of Colby farm.
It was a risk on the part of both parties, but Olesia was especially drawn to the Luchterhands because the Wisconsin couple had grandchildren about the same age as Roman and Dmytro. They would understand, she reasoned, why it was so important to her to keep the boys safe.
Relief and peace, but building a new life isn't always easy
It didn't take long for Olesia and Mykola to find work. Olesia works as a teachers assistant at a Colby child care. Mykola works in maintenance for an Abbyland Meats pork processing plant in Curtiss, about six miles away.
In "One Good Reason," viewers see the relief on the Hnatuiks faces as they settle in for a quiet life but also the struggles of disruption, particularly with Roman, who found the transition difficult. Being left at Colby Elementary School for the first time, for example, was traumatic for the little boy. Olesia, too. She is shown driving away from the school in tears.
Roman is a little more settled in since January, but "he misses his grandmother, everything he is used to," Olesia said. "He is at the age where he remembers and understands everything."
The change has come easier for the younger Dmytro. Give him ice cream, Olesia jokes, and "he's the happiest child on earth."
The Hnatiuks are allowed to stay in the United States for at least two years. Bryce and Max said they will help Olesia and Mykola get green cards that would allow them to stay longer.
Olesia said they don't know if they ever will return to Ukraine to live.
"It's hard to think about the future, really it's very hard," she said. "For two years, we have no plans. Just be here."
As long as Russia holds power in the region, Olesia doesn't want her sons in Ukraine. She never wants to see them them have to go to war.
"I think there will be a new chance for them (here)," she said.
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Meanwhile, Max and Bryce are happy to have the Hnatiuk family on their farm.
"I would say it was all that we had hoped for," Max said. "When I started texting Olesia every day, I just felt so close to her. I feel like we have another daughter and son here. It's wonderful."
Bryce agreed. "When we decided to sponsor people from Ukraine, I didn't have any ideas about how this was going to turn out or what kind of people we would have living here with us," he said. "It was just that they needed help. ... It has exceeded any expectations we could have possibly had. They are wonderful people."
Keith Uhlig is a regional features reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin based in Wausau. Contact him at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Marshfield News-Herald: Wisconsin farmers, Ukraine refugees story debuts at Tribeca Film Fest
