Based on the found-footage anonymous five-hour documentary, To Watch the War (2018), this film is thus a second-degree artistic appropriation of amateur footage shot during the war in the Donbass region of Ukraine, recombined into a surreal anti-war film-poem — authored by Kavelina herself. The war videos are interspersed with the director’s own animated segments, staged mise-en-scènes, and archival footage of the Donbass from the 1930s (when the region became a hotspot for Stalinist industrialization of the Soviet Union, and of heated class warfare) onwards.
Ukrainian reality is divided into two periods — before and after the war. In the nationwide resistance, every citizen tries to be helpful. Ukrainians change professions and adapt to wartime needs. Sculptors fabricate anti-tank obstacles in their art workshops. Just like the Terracotta Army, silent figures of Ukrainian personalities, angels, Cossacks, and multiple copies of Jesus Christ are frozen in anticipation of new creations. Craftsmen weld metal defense items for the Armed Forces of Ukraine
In 2022, Mantas Kvedaravičius went back to Ukraine, Mariupol, at the heart of the war, to be with the people he had met and filmed in 2015. Following his death, his producers and collaborators have put all their strength into continuing transmitting his work, his vision and his films. With huge force and sensitivity, the film depicts life as it continues amidst the bombing and reveals images that convey both tragedy and hope.
March 14, 2022, the 2,944th day of the Russian-Ukrainian War. In the last few weeks, intense warfare has surreally mixed places and people and created a post-apocalyptic dimension revealing new qualities and roles. Thousands of Kyivans have moved to live in subway stations. The capital city’s previously calm suburbs have been transformed into battle zones of destruction and looting by Russian occupiers.
Written two weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This drama conjures up playwright Andrii Bondarenko’s life in Ukraine: the peace and tranquillity of his boyhood — bookended by historical traumas, revolutions and war.
A compendium of short films that highlight the full tragedy that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It charts the course of the Russian progression across the country through the lives and communities of those affected by the wide-scale aggression, alongside those fighting for their land. It also details the force of the assault, but its primary focus lies with the strength of the communities that have had to endure unimaginable hardships but who remain resilient in the face of such oppression. It joins an increasing number of ground-level films documenting the reality of this modern tragedy.
