In her project "Crimea River" Maria Chubataja explores Crimean legends through the perspective of the relations between woman and a man.

In her childhood she was inspired by the locations where these legends took place. But she didn't see a pattern in all these stories.

«Once upon a time a beautiful girl from a rich family fell in love with a shepherd. Her father was angry and threw the man in the well...

...She saved him but her father sent the shepherd into the far away lands where he was killed by father's servant. And when her lover hadn't come back the girl jumped of the cliff.»

«Once upon a time in a village there was the most beautiful girl named Arzy. Her favorite place was the fountain near the sea. Once she was seen there by Ali Baba's robber. He stole her and sold to the sultan as a concubine. After she had given birth to the sultan's child she couldn't take it anymore. She jumped to the sea and became a mermaid that people saw near the fountain in her native village.»