Nataliia Arnaut creates sand animation to draw EU countries’ attention to the deportation of Ukrainian children

Nataliia Arnaut is a 38-year-old artist from Zaporizhzhia who has been creating sand animation for more than 12 years. She calls it the art of a single moment, even though one short video takes more than 40 hours of work. In 2012 she founded Dream Sky Studio, where she creates sand stories for children, adults, couples in love, charity projects and international initiatives. “For me it is a way of speaking about what words leave unsaid: these videos are about hope, memory, love and dreams,” Natalia explains.

This November she spent a week working through the night (because in Zaporizhzhia, after the Russian shelling, there was no electricity at any other time) to create a sand animation calling for the protection and return of deported Ukrainian children. The video was screened on 19 November at the European Parliament Office in Rome at the World Children’s Day event organised by the National Congress of Ukrainian Associations in Italy (CNAUI). And on 18 December her sand animation will once again work in support of Ukrainian children at the summit “Protecting the Children of Ukraine: Diplomacy, Law, Justice”, to be held at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in Brussels.

Nataliia makes social awareness videos, music videos for Ukrainian and Italian performers, children’s fairy tales and animations, and stories of love and family life. She also performs live — with symphony orchestras and musicians, at venue openings and at city day celebrations in various regions of Ukraine.

When Natalia started out, there was no equipment, no instructions and no examples to follow for sand animation. Her husband, Vadym, took on the technical side of the studio: the table structure, cameras, lighting, tripods, screens and sound. She describes him as her technician, her support and an honest critic who is not afraid to tell her the truth. Nataliia creates the story, plans every frame and draws the sketches. A live performance means long hours of rehearsal, until her hands remember every movement. Sand allows no mistakes: one imprecise gesture and the picture changes. In videos, on the other hand, what matters is not quick transformations but detail and precision in every frame. Work on a single video can take up to several weeks: sand loves patience and silence.

“In the children’s studio we made up stories, built mazes in the sand and created picture puzzles. Children know how to create from the heart, and this creativity was therapy for them. But on 23 January 2025, at four in the morning, Zaporizhzhia suffered one of the heaviest Russian attacks. A missile damaged more than 30 residential tower blocks and almost completely destroyed the Palace of Culture, where the children’s sand animation studio had worked for many years: a place where children dreamed, laughed and drew. Stories have power. They can support us, remind us of what matters, make us feel. If my work touches people even for a moment, then I am doing everything right.”