I wrote KATYA while trying to understand what being Russian meant after fleeing the country within 48 hours of the invasion of Ukraine. In Seattle, filing asylum papers, I realized I no longer knew how to define my identity, and yet couldn’t drain it from my blood. The film explores that tension of how we love a country that has failed us, and how our names, histories, and memories follow us across borders. Renata’s dilemma mirrors that of many immigrants worldwide: can we ever truly escape where we were born?