WATCH: ‘Our Bothy’ - Ukrainian family says farewell to Inverness in evocative film
A Ukrainian family has made a short evocative film bidding farewell to Inverness where they found a safe haven after fleeing their homeland.
Andrei and Maria Petrov, their sons Illya (18), Kirill (16), Matthew (4 ) and Maria’s mother, Anna, who is in her 70s, spent more than 18 months in the city’s Craigmonie Hotel after fleeing their home in Kharkiv as it came under Russian attack.
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The Petrovs, who are now on their way to the USA, recount their eventful journey which brought them to the Highlands in the film, Our Bothy.
It has been made in conjunction with the Highland International Church which meets at the Craigmonie Hotel.
Maria reflects movingly: “In Scotland, there are ‘houses of shelter’ in the mountains and it is a bothy - and for me, Scotland is like a ‘Bothy in the world’ because here we were safe.
“People in your country have surrounded us with every care, gave us housing, made it possible for us to work here.
“It was a place of refuge in circumstances when everything was unsettled.”
Andrei voices his appreciation and gratitude to the Scottish Government, the hotel workers, people at the church who accepted them and became their friends and those who opened their hearts and homes to them.
